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i 






DR. FULLER S 



WORTHIES OF ENGLAND. 



IN THREE VOLUMES. 
VOL. I[. 



PRINTED BY NUTTALL AND HODGSON, 
GOUGH SQUARE, LONDON. 



THE 



HISTORY 



OF THE 



WORTHIES OP ENGLAND: 



BY 

THOMAS FULLER, D.D. 

AUTHOR OF " ABEL REDIVIVUS," " THE CHURCH HISTORY OF BRITAIN," &C. 

A NEW EDITION, 

CONTAINING BRIEF NOTICES OF THE MOST CELEBRATED WORTHIES OF ENGLAND WHO 
HAVE FLOURISHED SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER; 

WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES AND COPIOUS INDEXES. 

BY P. AUSTIN NUTTALL, LL.D. 

AUTHOR OP THE " CLASSICAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY;" 
TRANSLATOR OF HORACE, JUVENAL, &C. 



IN THREE VOLUMES. 

VOL. II. 



LONDON: 
PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAP3IDE. 



M.DCCC.XL. 



CONTENTS. 






VOL. II. 



HAMPSHIRE. 

Boundaries, Soil, &c. 1 Natural Commodities : Red Deer, Honey, Wax, Hogs, 
2, 3. Buildings: Wonders, 4. Proverbs, 5. Princes: Henry son of king 
John, Eleanor daughter of Edward I., Arthur son of Henry VII. 5, 6 Saints: 
St. Edburgh, 6 Martyrs : John Philpot, Katharine Gowches, Guillemine Gil 
bert, Perotine Massey, 7, 8. Prelates : Wm. Wickham, John Russell, Wm. 
Warham, Robt. Sherborne, John White, Tho. Bilson, Henry Cotton, Arth. 
Lakes, 8-12. Statesmen : Rich. Rich, Wm. Powlett, Sir Tho. Lakes, 13, 14. 
Soldiers: Beauvois earl of Southampton, 14. Seamen: Sir John Wallop, 
Robt. Tomson, 15 Writers : Lamprid of Winchester, Wolstanus of Winchester, 
John of Basingstoke, John of Hide, Wm. Alton, Wm. Lillie, Michael Reneger, 
Thos. Sternhold, David Whitehead, Nich. Fuller, Tho. James, Chas. Butler, 

Rich. White, John Pits, 16-21 Benefactors: Sir Wm. Doddington, Joseph 

Diggons, 22, 23, Memorable Persons, 23. Lord Mayors: Gentry, 24 List 
of Sheriffs, 25-35 The Farewell, 35. Worthies since the time of Fuller, and 
Works relative to the County, 35, 36. 



HARTFORD, OR HERTFORD-SHIRE. 

Etymology, Boundaries, Produce, &c. 37. Buildings: Hatfield-House, 38. Medi 
cinal Waters, ib. Proverbs, 39. Princes : William and Edmund, sons of Ed 
ward III., Edmund of Haddam, 40 Saints : St. Alban, 41. Martyrs, ib. 

Pope Nicholas : Cardinal Boso, 42 Prelates : Rich, de Ware, Ralph Baldock, 

John Barnet, Tho. Rudburne, 43, 44. Statesmen : Sir Edw. Waterhouse, Henry 

Gary viscount Falkland, 44-46 Soldiers : Sir Henry Gary, 47. Physicians : 

John Giles, John de Gatesden, 49. Writers : Alex. Nequam, William of Ware, 
John Mandevile, Nicholas Gorham, Hugh Legat, John Wheatamstead, John 
Bourchier, Roger Hutchinson, Tho. Cartwright, Daniel Dike, Jeremiah Dike, 
Arthur Capel, Edw. Symonds, 50-56. Benefactors : Nich. Dixon, Sir Ralph 
Josceline, John Incent, Sir Tho. White, Rich. Hale, Edw. Bash, 56-58. Memo 
rable Persons : Tho. Waterhouse, 59 Lord Mayors, ib List of Sheriffs ; with 

notices of Geo. Horsey, Henry Cock, Edw, Denny, Geo. Purient, Tho. Dacres, 
VOL. II. b 



CONTENTS. 



Tho. Hoe, Tho. Conisby, 60-64 __ The Farewell, 65 Worthies since the time of 
Fuller, and Works relative to the County, 65, 66. 



HEREFORDSHIRE. 

Boundaries, Climate, Produce, &c. 67. Natural Commodities: Wool, Salmon, 
68, 69. Wonders : fountain called Bone-well, three Suns, Marcley Hill, 69, 70. 
Proverbs, 70 __ Saints: St. Ethelbert, Tho. Cantilupe, 71. Martyrs: Sir John 
Oldcastle, 72 __ Cardinals: Adam de Easton, ib. Prelates : John Breton, Adam 
de Orlton, John Grandesson, Tho. Bradwardine Abp. of Canterbury, Rich. Clifford 
bishop of London, Dr. Miles Smith, 73-75. Soldiers : Robt. Devereux, 76 
Writers: Roger of Hereford, Wm. Lempster, Rich. Hackluit, John Gwillim, 
John Davies, Humphry Ely, 77-80. Benefactors : John Walter, 80. Memora 
ble Persons: Fair Rosamund, 81. Gentry, 81-83. List of Sheriffs; with 
notices of Richardus de Baskervil, Walter Devereux, Richard de la Bere, Rich. 
Cornwall, Tho. Conisby, James Skudamore, 83-95. The Farewell, 95. Wor 
thies since the time of Fuller, and Works relative to the County, 96. 



HUNTINGDONSHIRE. 

Boundaries and Soil, 97 __ Builldings : Kimbolton Castle, Hinchinbrook, ib 
Medicinal Waters : Proverbs, 98 __ Saints : St. Elfled, 99. Prelates : Wm. de 
Whitlesey, Francis White, 99, 100. Writers : Henry Saltry, Gregory of Hunting- 
ton, Hugh of Saint Neot s, Wm. Ramsey, Henry of Huntington, Roger of St. Ives, 
John Yong, John White, Sir Rob. Cotton, Stephen Marshall, Rich. Broughton, 
101-106 __ Benefactors : Ambrose Nicholas, Sir Wolstan Dixie, Rich. Fishbourn, 
106 __ Memorable Persons : Sir Oliver Cromwell, 107 Gentry, ib List of 
Sheriffs : The Farewell, 109 __ Worthies since the time of Fuller, and Works re 
lative to the County, 110. 



KENT. 

Boundaries, Soil, The Weald, 1 1 1 Natural Commodities : Cherries, Saint- 

l foin, Trouts, Weld or Wold, Madder, Flax, 112-114 Manufactures: Clothing, 

Thread, 114,115 Buildings: Rochester Cathedral, Cobham Hall, 115 

Wonders: the Navy Royal, 116-120. Medicinal Waters: Tunbridge-wa- 

ter, 120 Proverbs, 121-125 Princes: John of Eltham, Bridget of El- 

tham, Edmund son of Henry the Seventh, Henry the Eighth, Quean Mary, 
Queen Elizabeth, Mary and Sophia daughters of James I., Charles son of 
Charles I., 126-129. Saints : St. Ealphage, St. Agelnoth, 129, 130. Martyrs : 
Wm. White, 131. Confessors : Simon Fish, Sir James Hales, 132 Cardinals : 
John Kemp, Rich. Clifford, 133. Prelates : Ralph of Maydenstan, Henry de 
Wingham, Henry of Sandwich, Richard of Gravesend, Simon Mepham, Haymo 
of Hithe, John of Sheppy, Wm. Rede, Tho. Kemp, James Goldwell, Tho. Gold- 
well, John Poynet, Rich. Fletcher, Dr. Brian Duppa, 134-139 Statesmen : Sir 
Edw. Poynings, Sir Anthony St. Leger, Sir Henry Sidney, Sir Philip Sidney, 

Sir Francis Walsingham, 139-143 Capital Judges, and Writers on Law : Sir 

John Fineux, Sir Roger Manwood, Sir Henry Finch, 143, 144. Soldiers : Sea 
men : Wm. Adams, 145 Civilians . Nicholas Wotton, Giles Fletcher, 146. 

Physicians: Robert Floid, Wm. Harvey, 147, 148. Writers: John of Kent, 
Haimo of Feversham, Simon Stock, Thomas Haselwood, Sir Tho. Wiat, Leonard 



CONTENTS. Vll 

Diggs, Tho. Charnock, Francis Thinne, Rob. Glover, Tho. Mills, John Philpot, 
Tho. Playferd, Dr. John Bois, 149-155. Benefactors : Sir John Philpot, Wm. 
Sevenock, Sir Andrew Jud, Wm. Lambe, Frances Sidney, Sir Francis Nethersole, 
155-157 Memorable Persons : Simon Lynch, Mary Waters, Nich. Wood, 158, 

159 Lord Mayors: Gentry, 160 List of Sheriffs ; with notices of Hubert de 

Burgo et Hugo de Windlesore, Hubert de Burozo et Will, rfe Brito, Johan. de 
Northwod, Arnold Savage, Gulielmus Barry, Valentine Barret, Wm. Scot, John 
Seintleger, Rich. Waller, Willielmus Crowmer, John Scot, Rich. Brakenbury, et 
Willielmus Cheney, Will. Boleyn, Joh. Peach, Joh. Norton, Tho. Cheney, John 
Wiltshire, John Roper, Moile Finch, 165-180 The Farewell, 180. 

CANTERBURY. 

Antiquity, and Situation, 180, 181. Buildings: Christ Church, 181. Pro 
verbs, ib.~ Prelates : Stephen Langton, 182 Soldiers: Wm. Prude, 183 
Writers: Osbern of Canterbury, Simon Langton, 1 83, 184. Benefactors : John 
Easday, Tho. Nevile, 184 The Farewell, 185. 

Worthies since the time of Fuller, and Works relative to the County, 185-187. 



LANCASHIRE. 

Boundaries, Parishes, &c. 188 Natural Commodities: Oats, Alum, Oxen, 189, 

Manufactures: Fustians, 190. Buildings: Wonders, 191 Proverbs, 

191, 192 Martyrs: John Rogers, John Bradford, Geo. Marsh, 192,193. 

Cardinals: Wm. Alan, 194. Prelates: Hugh Oldham, Dr. James Stan 
ley, Henry Standish, John Christopherson, Dr. James Pilkinton, Edwin Sandys, 
Rich. Barnes, John Woolton, Matthew Hutton, Martin Heton, Richard Ban 
croft, Tho. Jones, Richard Parr, 195-200. Soldiers : Sir Wm. Molineux, Sir 

Wm. Molineux, jun., 201 Writers: Hugh of Manchester, Rich. Ulverston, 

Tho. Penketh, John Standish, Tho. Leaver, Wm. Whitacre, Alex. Nowell, John 
Dee, Dr. Roger Fenton, Robert Bolton, John Weever, Dr. Ralph Cudworth, 

Lawrence Chaderton, Geo. Walker, Edw. Rishton, Tho. Worthington 

Anderton, 202-211 Benefactors: Wm. Smith Molineux, Edw. Halsall, 

Tho. West, John Smith, Geo. Clarke, Humph. Chetham, 211-214. Memorable 
Persons: Sir Edm. de Trafford et Sir Tho. de Ashton, . . . Kidson, Rich. 
Rothwell, 215, 216. Lord Mayors, 217. List of Sheriffs, 217-219. Bat 
tles: at Preston, 219. The Farewell, 220 Worthies since the time of Fuller, 
and Works relative to the County, 220-222. 



LEICESTERSHIRE. 

Boundaries and Soil, 223 Natural Commodities : Beans, Coal, 223, 224. Manu 
factures : Buildings, 224. Wonders, 225. Proverbs, 225, 226. Princes : 

Ladies Jane, Katharine, and Mary Grey, 226, 227 Martyrs : Hugh Lati- 

mer, 227 Prelates : Gilbert Segrave, Walter de Langton, Roger de Martival, 
Robert Wivill, Joseph Hall, 228-230. Statesmen: Geo. Villiers, 231,232 
Capital Judges : Sir Rcb. Belknap, Sir Rob. Catelin, 233. Writers : Wm. 
de Leicester, Rich. Belgrave, Rob. de Leicester, Tho. Ratclif, Barth. Culie, 
Wm. de Lubbenham, Jeffery de Harby, Wm, de Folvil, Henry de Knighton, Wm. 
Woodford, Tho. Langton, Rob. de Harby, Rich. Turpin, Henry Smith, Dr. John 
Duport, Wm. Burton, Rob. Burton, Rich. Vines, John Cleveland, 234-240 
Benefactors; Sir John Poultney, Rob. Smith, 241, 242. Memorable Persons: Sir 

b 2 



CONTENTS. 



Edm. Applebie, John Herdwicke, John Poultney, Henry Noel, 242, 243. Lord 
Mayors/244 -List of Sheriffs; with notices of Tho. de Woodford, Tho. Burdet, 
Hump. Stafford, Win. Hastings, Edw. Hastings, John Fisher, Francis Hastings, 
Anth. Faunt, Wm. Skipwith, 244-258.-The Farewell, 25S.-Worthies since the 
time of Fuller, and Works relative to the County, 258-260. 



LINCOLNSHIRE. 

Boundaries, 261. Natural Commodities: Pikes, Wild Fowl, Dotterels, Feathers, 
Pippins, Fleet Hounds, Greyhounds, Mastiffs, 261-265. Buildings: Lincoln 
Cathedral, 266. Wonders, 266, 267. Proverbs, 267-269 Princes : Henry 
son of John of Gaunt, 269. Saints: Gilbert de Sempringham, Hugh of 
Lincoln, 270, 271. Martyrs : Anne Askewe, 271 Cardinals: Rob. Som- 
mercot, ib. Prelates : Wm. of Gainsborough, Wm. Ayrmin, Wm. Waynflet, 
Wm. Lynwood, Wm. Ascough, Rich. Fox, Tho. Goodrich, John Whitgift, Dr. 
John Still, Dr. Martin Fotherby, 272-277 Statesmen : Edw. Fines, Tho. Wil 
son, Tho. Lord Burge, Wm. Cecil, 277-279 Capital Judges : Sir Wm. de Skip 
with, Sir Wm. Skipwith, jun., Sir Wm. Husee, Sir Edm. Anderson, 279-281. 
Soldiers : Sir Fred. Tilney, Peregrine Berty, Sir Edw. Harwood, 282-284. 
Seamen : Job Hartop, Sir Wm. Mounson, 284, 285. Writers : Gilb. of Hol 
land, Roger of Crouland, Elias de Trekingham, Hugo Kirksted, Wm. Lidlington, 
Nich. Stanford, John Bloxham, John Hornby, Boston of Bury, Laurence Hole- 
beck, Bertram Fitzalin, Edm. Sheffeild, Peter Morwing, Anth. Gilby, John Fox, 
Dr. Tho. Sparks, Doctor Tighe, Fines Morison, 286-292 Benefactors : Wm. 
Ratcliffe, Jane Cecil, Geo. Trigg, Rich. Sutton, Rob. Johnson, Frances Wray, 
293-295. Memorable Persons: Lord Mayors, 295. Gentry, 296. List of 
Sheriffs ; with notices of Joan Walch, John Rochford, Rob. Dimock, John 
Husse, Tho. Burge, Jervasius Scroop, 297-308. The Farewell, 309. Worthies 
since the time of Fuller, and Works relative to the County, 309, 310. 



MIDDLESEX. 

Boundaries, 311 Natural Commodities : Wheat, Tamarisk, 311, 312. Manufac 
tures: Leather, 312 Buildings: Hampton Court, Osterly House, 313 Pro 
verbs, 313, 314. Princes: Edward son of Henry VIII., 315-320. Martyrs: 
John Denley, 320 Prelates: Rich. Northall, Wm. Wickham, 320, 321. Sol 
diers : Fulke de Brent, Sir Ralph Sadlier, 321, 322. Capital Judges, and 
Writers on Law : Sir Tho. Frowick, Sir Win. Stamford, 323 Writers : John 
Acton, Ralph Acton, Roger Twiford, Robt. Hownslow, Wm. Gouge, 324, 325. 
Benefactors : a nameless Hermit, Alice Wilkes, Sir Julius Caesar, 325, 326. 
Memorable Persons : Peter Fabel, .... Trestram, 327 Lord Mayors, 328 
Gentry ; with notices of Thorn. Chaleton, Thorn. Frowyk, Williel. Wroth, John 
Shordyche, Johan. Elryngton, 328-330. The Sheriffs, 330. Battles : Brentford 
Fight, 331. The Farewell, ib. 

LONDON. 

Greatness of, 333. Manufactures : Needles, the Engine, 333, 334. Buildings : 
St. Paul s, the Bridge, the Exchange, the Tower, Armory, Mint, 335-337. 
Wardrobe: the Unicorn s Horn, 338. Proverbs, 340-349. Princes: Katherine 
dau. of Henry III., Joan, dau. of Edward II., Katherine dau. of Henry VII., 
Anna Bollen, Kath. Howard, 350-352. Saints : St.Wulsine, Tho. a Becket, 350- 
353. Martyrs: Wm. Sautre, John Badby, 353-355 Prelates: Simon of Gaunt, 



CONTENTS. IX 

John Kite, Win. Knight, Nicolas Heath, Dr. John Younge, Dr. Wm. Cotton, Dr. 
Lancelot Andrews, Dr. Tho. Dove, Dr. John Howson, Dr. John Davenant, 
Dr. Matthew Wren, 355-360 -Statesmen : Sir Tho. More, Marg. More, Tho. 
Wriothesley, Wm. Paget, Tho. Wentworth, Lyonel Cranfield, 361-366 Writers 
on Law : Fleta, Christopher St. German, Wm. Rastal, 366, 367. Soldiers : Sir 

Tho. Roper, 368 Seamen, 370.T-Civilians : Sir Henry Martin, ib Physicians : 

Richardus Anglicus, John Phreas, Andrew Borde, 371, 372. Writers : Nathel- 
mus of London, Wm. Fitz-Stephen, Albricius of London, Wm. Sengham, Lau- 
rentius Anglicus, Nich. Lyre, Bankinus of London, Robt. Ivory, Juliana Barnes, 
Robt. Fabian, Tho. Lupset, John Rastall, Edw. Hall, Dr. Wm. Fulke, Edm. 
Spenser, John Stow, Giles Fletcher, John Donne, John Heiwood, Maurice 
Chamnee, Edm. Campian, 373-382 Benefactors: Tho. Pope, Tho. Curson, 
Edw. Allin, Wm. Plat, Alex. Strange, 384-386 To the Reader, 386. Lord 
Mayors, 387. Sheriffs of London and Middlesex ; with notices of Walter Brown, 
Simon Fitz-Mary, Philippus Malpas, Richard Rich, and Richard Rawson, Tho. 
Ham, Henry Keble, Geo. Monox, 388-410 The Farewell, 410. 

WESTMINSTER. 

Buildings : Abbey Church, Henry the Seventh s Chapel, Westminster-hall, White 
hall, 411, 412. Proverbs, 412,413 Princes: Edward I., Edward son of 

Henry VI., Edward son of Edward IV., Elizabeth dau. of Edward IV., Cecily 
dau. of Edward IV., Charles II., Mary, James, Elizabeth, Anne, Katherine 

(children of Charles I.), Charles Stewart, 413-420. Saints : St. Wulsy, 420 

Martyrs, ib. Confessors, 421. Prelates: Rich. Neile, Dr. John Warner, ib. 
Statesmen : Sir Francis Bacon, 422 Writers : Sulcard of Westminster, Gilbert 
of Westminster, Matthew of Westminster, Benj. Jonson, 423, 424 Masters of 

Music: Christ. Tye, John Douland, 425, 426 Benefactors: James Palmer, 

426. Memorable Persons : Edm. Doubleday, 427 The Farewell, ib. 

Worthies since the time of Fuller, and Works relative to the County, 428-430. 



MONMOUTHSHIRE. 

Jurisdiction, 431. Manufactures: Caps, ib. Princes: Henry of Monmouth, 433. 
Saints: St. Amphibalus, St. Aaron, St. Julius, 433, 434. Cardinals: Geffery 
of Monmouth, John of Monmouth, Walter Cantilupe, 434, 435. Soldiers: 
Rich, de Clare, Sir Roger Williams, Wm. Herbert earl of Pembroke, 435-437. 
Writers : Jeffery of Monmouth, Thos. of Monmouth, 437, 438 Benefactors : 
Henry Plantagenet duke of Lancaster, Wm. Johnes, 438, 439. Memorable 

Persons : Wm. Evans, 439 List of Sheriffs, 440-442. The Farewell, 442. 

Worthies since the time of Fuller, and Works relative to the County, 443. 



NORFOLK. 

Boundaries, Soil, Churches, 444 Natural Commodities : Rabbits, Herrings, fine 

Clay, 444, 445 Manufactures : Worsteds, 445. Proverbs, 446, 447. Princes, 

447. Prelates: Gilbert Berkley, John Aylmer, John Towers, 447, 448 
Capital Judges, and Writers on the Law : Ralph de Hengham, Wm. Paston, Sir 
Edw. Coke, Sir Tho. Richardson, 449-453. Soldiers : Robt. Venile, Sir Oliver 
Hingham, John Fastolfe, Sir Clement Paston, 454, 455. Seamen, &c. : Cata 
logue of Ships used by Edward III. against Calais, Nicholas of Lynn, 
Peter Read, 456-458. Writers : John Baconthorpe, John Colton, Alan of 
Lynn, Wm. Wells, John Thorpe, John Skelton, Wm. Lilly, John Barret, Edm. 



X CONTENTS. 

Gourney, 458-463. Benefactors : Godfrey Bolleu, Jas. Hobart, And. Perne, 
Sir Thos. Gresham, Sir Wm. Fasten, Henry Howard, 463-467 Memorable Per 
sons : Lord Sharnborn, 468 Lord .Mayors, 469. Gentry, 469-473. List of 
Sheriffs ; with notices of Earth. Glanvill, et Vinar. Capellanus, Philip Calthrope, 
Edm. Windham, Tho. Woodhouse, Drugo Drury, Roger Townsend, 473-486 
The Farewell, 487. 

NORWICH. 

Characteristics of, 487 Natural Commodities: Flowers, ib. Manufactures: 

Stuffs, 488. Buidings, ib. Physicians: John Goslin, John Caius, 489, 490. 
Writers : Robt. Watson, 490. Benefactors : Wm. Baitman, Tho. Legg, 490, 
491 The Farewell, 492. 

Worthies since the time of Fuller, and Works relative to the County, 492-495. 



NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

Boundaries, Fruitfulness, Rivers, Language, 496 Natural Commodities : Salt- 
Petre, Pigeons, 497. Manufactures : Boots and Stockings, 498. Build 
ings : the Cathedral, Holdenby-house, Burleigh-house, Withorpe-house, Castle 
Ashby, 499 Wonders : Petrifying Spring, 500 Medicinal Waters : Welling- 

borough Well, ib Proverbs, 500, 501 Princes : Elizabeth Woode vuTwife of 

Edward the Fourth, Rich. Plantagenet, Duke of York, Katharine Parr, 501, 502. 

Saints: St. Werburgh, 503 Martyrs: John Curd, 504. Cardinals: Henry 

Chichley, ib Prelates : Rich. Adam of Northampton, Wm. le Zouch, Rob. 
Braybrooke, Liouell Wydevill, James Montague, Francis Godwin, John Owen, 
Dr. Robert Skinner, 504-507 Statesmen : Sir Christ. Hatton, Sir Wm. Fitz- 
Williams, Sir Isaac Wake, 507, 508. Capital Judges, and Writers on the Law : 
Martin de Pateshull, Sir Tho. de Billing, Sir Wm. Catesbye, Sir Rich. Empson, 
Edw. Montague, Sir Augustin Nicolls, Sir Reb. Dallington, John Fletcher, Sir 
Henry Montague, 509-513 Writers: John of Northampton, Rob. Holcot, 
Rob. Dodford, Peter Pateshull, Rob. Crowley, Eusebius Paget, Dr. John Preston, 
Tho. Randolph, Nich. Estwick, Matthew Kellison, 514-518. Benefactors: 
Henry Chichely, Wm. Laxton, Nich. Latham, Edw. Montague baron of Bough- 
ton, 514-520. Memorable Persons: Lord Mayors, 521. List of Sheriffs ; with 
notices of Rich. Widevill, Henry Green, Henry Veer, Nich. Vaux, Tho. Par, 
Wm. Fitz-Williams, Wm. Par, John Clarke, David Cecill, Wm. Par, jun., Tho. 
Tressam, Edm. Brudenell, Tho. Tressam, Tho. Cecill, Tho. Andrews, Arthur 
Throgkmorton, John Freeman, Wm. Willmer, Wm. Chauncy, John Hewet, 
521-538 The Farewell, 538 Worthies since the time of Fuller, and Works 
relative to the County, 538-540. 



NORTHUMBERLAND. 

Boundaries, &c. 541. The Buildings, ib Proverbs, 542,543. Scottish Proverbs 

current in this County, 544 Saints: St. Ebba, 545. Prelates: Geo. Carleton, 

Valentine Cary, Dr. Rich. Holeworth, 545, 546 Soldiers : Chevy-Chase, The 
Percies, 547, 548 Physicians : W T m. Turner, Tho. Gibson, 548, 549. Writers : 
Ralph Fresbourne, Johannes Scotus, 549, 550. Benefactors : Stephen Brown, 

Robert Woodlarke, 551 Memorable Persons: Machell Vivan, ... Anderson, 

552,553. Gentry: Observations, 554 List of Sheriffs; with notices of John 

Coupeland, Fiancis Russell, 555-565 The Farewell, 565. Worthies since the 

time of Fuller, and Works relative to the County, 565-567. 



CONTENTS. XI 



NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 

Boundaries and Soil, 568. Natural Commodities : Glycyrize or Liquorice, ib. 
Wonders, ib. Proverbs, 568-570. Martyrs : Tho. Cranmer, 570. Pre 
lates : Wm. Chappell, 571. Capital Judges: Sir John Markham, ib. Sea 
men : Edward Fenton, 572. Writers : Wm. Mansfield, Wm. Nottingham, 
Rob. Worsop, Sir Jeffrey Fenton, John Plough, Win. Brightman, 573-575 
Memorable Persons : Rob. Hood, Tho. Magnus, 575, 576. Lord Mayors, 577. 

Gentry, 577, 573 List of Sheriffs ; with notices of Wm. Hollis, Rob. Per- 

point, 579-582 The Farewell, 583 Worthies since the time of Fuller, and 
Works relative to the County, 583, 584. 



THE 



WORTHIES OF ENGLAND, 



HAMPSHIRE. 

HAMPSHIRE hath Berkshire on the north, Surrey and Sussex 
on the east, the sea on the south, Dorset and Wiltshire on the 
west. From north unto south it extendeth unto fifty-four 
miles, not stretching above thirty miles from the east to the 
west thereof. 

A happy country in the four elements, if culinary fire in cour 
tesy may pass for one, with plenty of the best wood for the fuel 
thereof. Most pure and piercing the air of this shire ; and none 
in England hath more plenty of clear and fresh rivulets of trout- 
ful water ; not to speak of the friendly sea conveniently dis 
tanced from London. As for the earth, it is both fair and fruit 
ful, and may pass for an expedient betwixt pleasure and profit ; 
where, by mutual consent, they are moderately accommodated. 

Yet much of the arable therein is stony ground, though not 
like that in the Gospel, where the grain grew up, and withered 
so soon, " having no deepness of earth ;" * this bringing plenty 
of corn to perfection. Indeed, that in the parable may be pre 
sumed inwardly a rock, only faced over with superficial earth ; 
whereas this hath solid earth enough ; but abounding with little 
loose stones lying above it, which are conceived to keep the 
corn warmer; and therefore some skilful in husbandry have 
maintained, that the taking of them away doth more hurt than 
good to the ground. 

The south-west part of this county is called The New Forest, 
not in the same sense as New College in Oxford, then at the 
founding the newest, which since hath gained many puisnes 
thereunto; but because the junior of all forests in England, 
many having been dis- none in-forested since the Conquest. 
True it is, king Henry the Eighth made a forest about his palace 
of Hampton in Middlesex, by the name of Hampton Forest ; 

* Matth. xiii. 5. 
VOL. II. B 



2 WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

but it never obtained peaceable possession in publique pronun 
ciation (blame not the people thereabout, if in point of profit 
their tongues would not cross their hearts) as this New Forest 
did. Whereof hereafter. 

NATURAL COMMODITIES. 
RED DEER. 

Great store of these were lately in New Forest, so called be 
cause newly made by king William the Conqueror. Otherwise, 
ten years hence, it will be six hundred years old. Indeed, as 
Augustus Caesar is said to have said of Herod king of 
Judea, that it was better to be his hog than his child ; so was it 
most true of that king William, that it was better to have been 
his stag than his subject ; the one being by him spared and 
preserved, the other ruined and destroyed : such was the devas 
tation he made of towns in this county, to make room for his 
game. And it is worth our observing the opposition betwixt the 
characters of 

KINO EDGAR. 

" Templa Deo, templis monachos, monachis dedit agros." * 

KING WILLIAM. 

" Templa adimit Divis, fora civibus, arva colonis."f 

And now was the south-west of this county made a forest 
indeed, if, as an antiquary^ hath observed, a forest be so called, 
quia foris est, because it is set open and abroad. The stags 
therein were stately creatures, jealous, revengeful ; insomuch 
that I have been credibly informed, that a stag, unable for the 
present to master another who had taken his hind from him, 
waited his opportunity, till his enemy had weakened himself 
with his wantonness, and then killed him. Their flesh may 
well be good, whose very horns are accounted cordial. Besides, 
there is a concave in the neck of a green-headed stag, when 
above his first crossing, wherein are many worms, some two 
inches in length, very useful in physic, and therefore carefully 
put up by Sir Theodore Mayerne and other skilful physicians. 
But, I believe, there be few stags now in New Forest, fewer 
harts, and not any harts-royal (as escaping the chase of a king) ; 
though in time there may be some again. 

HONEY. 

Although this county affordeth not such lakes of honey as 
some authors relate found in hollow trees in Muscovy ; nor 
yieldeth combs equal to that which Pliny reporteth seen in 
Germany, eight feet long ; || yet produceth it plenty of this 
necessary and profitable commodity. 

* Camden s Britannia, in Somersetshire. t Idem, in Hampshire. 

t Sir Robert Cotton (under the name of Mr. Speed), in Huntingdonshire. 
P. Jovius de Legatione Muscovitarum ; et Munsterus de Muscovia. 
|| Natural History, lib. xi. cap. 24. 



NATURAL COMMODITIES. 3 

Indeed Hampshire hath the worst and best honey in England; 
worst, on the heath, hardly worth five pounds the barrel ; best, 
in the champaign, where the same quantity will well nigh be 
sold for twice as much. And it is generally observed, the finer 
the wheat and wool, both which are very good in this county, 
the purer the honey of that place. 

Honey is useful for many purposes, especially that honey 
which is the lowest in any vessel. For it is an old and true 
rule, " the best oil is in the top ; the best wine in the middle ; 
and the best honey in the bottom."* It openeth obstructions, 
cleareth the breast and lights from those humours which fall 
from the head, looseneth the belly ; with many other sovereign 
qualities, too many to be reckoned up in a winter s day. 

However, we may observe three degrees, or kinds rather, of 
honey: 1. Virgin honey, which is the purest, of a late swarm 
which never bred bees. 2. Chaste honey, for so I may term all 
the rest which is not sophisticated with any addition. 3. Harlot 
honey, as which is adulterated with meal and other trash min 
gled therewith. 

Of the first and second sort I understand the counsel of 
Solomon, " My son, eat honey, for it is good;"f good abso 
lutely in the substance, though there may be excess in the 
quantity thereof. 

WAX. 

This is the cask, -where honey is the liquor ; and, being yellow 
by nature, is by art made white, red, and green, which I take 
to be the dearest colours, especially when appendant on parch 
ment. Wax is good by day and by night, when it affordeth 
light, for sight the clearest ; for smell the sweetest ; for touch 
the cleanliest. Useful in law to seal instruments ; and in phy 
sic, to mollify sinews, ripen and dissolve ulcers, &c. Yea, the 
ground and foundation of all cere-cloth (so called from cera) is 
made of wax. 

HOGS. 

Hampshire hogs are allowed by all for the best bacon, being 
our English Westphalian, and which, well ordered, hath de 
ceived the most judicious palates. Here the swine feed in the 
forest on plenty of acorns (men s meat in the golden, J hogs 
food in this iron age) ; which, going out lean, return home fat, 
without either care or cost of their owners. Nothing but 
fulness stinteth their feeding on the mast falling from the trees, 
where also they lodge at liberty (not pent up, as in other places, 
to stacks of peas), which some assign the reason of the fineness 
of their flesh ; which, though not all glare (where no banks of 
lean can be seen for the deluge of fat), is no less delicious to 
the taste, and more wholesome for the stomach. 

" Naturae liquor iste novae cui summa natat fsex." Ausonius. 
t Prov. xxiv. 13. 

J: " Olim oommunis pecori cibus atque homini glans. 1 Ausonius. 

B 2 



WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 



Swines-flesh, by the way, is observed most nutritive of men s 
bodies, because of its assimilation thereunto. Yet was the eat 
ing thereof forbidden to the Jews, whereof this reason may be 
rendered (besides the absolute will of the law-giver), because m 
hot countries men s bodies are subject to the measles and lepro 
sies, who have their greatest repast on swines-flesh. For the 
climate of Canaan was all the year long as hot as England 
betwixt May and Michaelmas ; and it is penal for any butchers 
with us in that term to kill any pork in the public shambles. 

As for the manufacture of clothing in this county (diffused 
throughout the same) such as deny the goodness of Hampshire 
cloth, and have occasion to wear it, will be convinced of its true 
worth by the price which they must pay for it. 

THE BUILDINGS. 

The cathedral in Winchester yieldeth to none in England for 
venerable magnificence. It could not be opus unius saculi, per 
fected by the contributive endeavours of several successive 
bishops, whereof some lie most sumptuously interred in their 
chapel-like monuments. 

On the walls of the choir on each side, the dust of the Saxon 
kings and ancient bishops of this church were decently en 
tombed (many hundred years after) by Richard Fox bishop of 
this see, till, in the beginning of our civil wars, they were 
barbarously thrown down by the soldiers. 

Josephus reports (what some hardly believe) how Herod took 
many talents of treasure out of the sepulchre of David. Sure I 
am they met with no such wealth here in this mine of mortality 
amongst the ashes, which did none any injury ; and therefore 
why malice should scratch out that which did not bite it, is to 
me unknown. 

As for the civil structures, Basing, built by the first marquis 
of Winchester, was the greatest of any subject s house in Eng 
land, yea larger than most (eagles have not the biggest nests 
of all birds) of the king s palaces. The motto " Love Loyalty," 
was often written in every window thereof; and was well prac 
tised in it, when, for resistance on that account, it was lately 
levelled to the ground. 

Next Basing, Bramsell, built by the last lord Zouch in a 
bleak and barren place, was a stately structure, especially before 
part thereof was defaced with a casual fire. 

THE WONDERS. 

There is an oak in this county, which by credible people is 
generally reported to put forth green leaves yearly on or about 
Christmas-day. It groweth nigh Lindhurst, in the New Forest; 
and perchance I could point more exactly at the position 
thereof, but am loath to direct some ignorant zealot, lest he cut 
it down under the notion of superstition, and make timber of 



PROVERBS PRINCES. 5 

this oak, as some lately have made fuel of the hawthorn at 

Glastonbury. 

PROVERBS. 

" Manners make a man, quoth William Wickham."] 

This generally was his motto, inscribed frequently on the 
places of his founding ; so that it hath since acquired a pro 
verbial reputation. We commonly say, 1. In the Church; 
" God makes a man/ as who truly created him. 2. In the 
Court ; " Clothes make a man," as which habit and adorn him. 
3 . In the Change ; " Money makes a man," which puts him 
in a solvable condition. 4. In the Schools ; " Manners make a 
man," as which complete and accomplish him. 

Grant the two middle expressions, the extravagancy of our 
pride and covetousness, the first and last must be allowed pro 
portionable to piety and truth. Without manners, one is but 
a man-beast, or centaur. 

Now seeing no man without manners, no manners without 
some learning, no learning without teaching, no teaching oi 
youth to that in a grammar free-school, of men to that in a col 
lege in an university ; how much thanks doth posterity owe to 
this Wickham s memory. 

" Canterbury is the higher rack, but Winchester is the better manger."] 

W. Edington, bishop of Winchester, was the author of this 
expression,* rendering this the reason of his refusal to be re 
moved to Canterbury, though chosen thereunto. Indeed, 
though Canterbury be graced with a higher honour, the reve 
nues of Winchester, lying entirely, are more advantageous to 
gather riches thereon. The proverb is appliable to such who 
prefer a wealthy privacy before a less profitable dignity. 

Yet know that that manger did once partly maintain that rack ; 
viz. when John White, bishop of Winchester, was enjoined by 
queen Mary to pay a thousand pounds a-year to cardinal Pole, 
archbishop of Canterbury, for the better siipport of his estate. 
" The Isle of Wight hath no monks, lawyers, or foxes, "fj 

This speech hath more mirth than truth in it. That they 
had monks, I know ; black ones at Carisbrook, white ones at 
Quarre, in this island.J That they have lawyers they know, 
when they pay them their fees ; and that they have foxes their 
lambs know. However, because perchance they have fewer in 
proportion to places of the like extent (and few or none are 
often coupled in common discourse), let not that which was 
pleasantly spoken be frowardly taken, but pass as we found it 
to posterity. 

PRINCES. 

HENRY eldest son of king John and his wife ISABEL, born at 
Winchester, anno 1208, was one (besides the account of longe 
vity) eminent in his generation. He was a most pious king, 

" Bishop Godwin, in the Bishops of Winchester, 
t Camden s Britannia, in the Isle of Wight. 
J Speed s Catalogue of Religious Houses, 



6 WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

son to a profane father [king John] ; a very poor king, brother 
to a most wealthy [Richard king of the Romans] ; a very weak 
king, father to a most wise son, Edward the First. The tragi 
comedy of his life was eminent in many particulars. 1. He 
had scarce half a kingdom in the beginning of his reign ; Lewis 
of France being brought in to be king by the English in their 
hot, and cast out in their cold blood. 2. He had no part of a 
kingdom in the middle of his reign, embroiled with war with 
his barons, beaten in battle, imprisoned, and no king in effect. 
3. He had all the kingdom in the end of his reign ; for as soon 
as prince Edward began to man it, this his son may be ac 
counted his father, by whom he attained a comfortable old age. 
He was not so weak but that he knew who were wiser than 
himself, and would be governed by them, one main cause which 
procured his death in peace, and burial in pomp in the abbey 
of Westminster of his own foundation, anno Domini 1273. 

ELEANOR, tenth daughter, sixteenth and youngest child of 
king Edward the First, was born at Winchester, the 6th of 
May 1306,* and died in her infancy ; so that the epitaph which 
I find elsewhere of an infant of meaner birth, may be applied 
unto her. (She lieth buried at Saint Peter s, Westminster, 
having her picture upon her monument with three brothers.) 

ARTHUR, eldest son to king Henry the Seventh and queen Eli 
zabeth, was born (being partus octomestris^ yet vital and vigo 
rous, contraiy to the rules of physicians) at Winchester, the 
20th day of September 1486. J Some will wonder at his name, 
whereof no alliance, nor English prince, since the unhappy 
Arthur duke of Britain, supposed to be made away by king 
John, his cruel uncle. But because this prince, by his father s 
side, was, with king Arthur, of British extraction, and because 
born at Winchester where king Arthur kept his court, and his 
(pretended) Round Table still to be seen, that name was be 
stowed upon him. He died at Ludlow, in the sixteenth year of 
his age, anno 1502, and is buried in the cathedral of Worcester j 
more known to posterity by the widow he left, the lady Kathe- 
rine Dowager (and the effects ensuing thereon), than by any of 
his own personal performances. 

SAINTS. 

EDBURGII, eighth daughter of king Edward the elder, and his 
first by queen Edgiva, gave, when but three years of age, a great 
augury of her future piety ; her father presenting before her, 
and leaving to her choice, on the one hand^ the New Testament 
and a chalice :|| on the other, jewels, rings, and bracelets. 

* Speed s Chronicle, p. 565. f Lord Verulam, in his Henry the Seventh. 

\ Speed s Chronicle, p. 763. 

Henry Higgden, and Polychronicon, lib. vi. cap. 4. 

! Flowers of the English Saints, p. 570, June the 15th. 



SAINTS MARTYRS. 7 

She took the New Testament and the chalice (conceive it not 
because of massy silver, but) acted with the principle of infant 
piety : hereupon her parents left her to her own disposal, who 
became a nun at Winchester after the order of Saint Benedict, 
undergoing the austerity of that order. It is reported of her 
(forgive me, reader, though I would not write these things they 
are so absurd, I cannot but write them they are so absurd) that 
she would by night play the part of a pious thief,* and steal the 
socks of all the other nuns, and, having carefully washed and 
anointed them, restore them to their bed sides. 

This Saint Edburg died on the 15th of June 920. Some of 
her bones being kept at Winchester, others say at Wiltonf (so 
facile the mistakes in Latin betwixt Wiltonia and Wintonia) ; 
and the rest were translated to Pershore, an abbey in the diocese 
of Worcester. 

MARTYRS. 

This county, being in the diocese of Winchester, escaped very 
well in the Marian days from any visible persecution. Under 
God, it might thank Stephen Gardiner, or rather Gardiner s po 
licy. This bishop, like a cunning hunter, preserved the game 
fair at home, and killed it in the walks of other keepers. It was 
not he, but bloody Bonner, who procured the death of, 

JOHN PHILPOT, son of Sir Peter Philpot, knight, born in 

this county ;J whose family had an ancient habitation at 

therein. He proceeded master of arts in New College in Ox 
ford ; and afterwards, being archdeacon of Lincoln, was a zeal-r 
ous promoter of the Protestant religion. In the first of queen 
Mary, being a member of the Convocation, " his heart was hot 
within ; and while he was musing, the fire kindled, and he spake 
with his tongue," which afterwards occasioned his martyr 
dom. 

If Papists account him a distracted man, none will wonder, 
who consider how the profane captains of Israel called the son 
of the prophet " a mad fellow." And if some vehement ex 
pressions fell from him during his imprisonment, his enemies 
cruelty was the cause thereof; seeing ill usage, which once made 
a dumb beast to speak, |j may make a sober man overspeak in 
his passion. But all his sufferings are reported by Mr. Fox so 
perfectly, "perfectum est cui nihil addi potest," that it is pre 
sumption for any to hope to make an essential addition there 
unto. He was martyred anno Domini 1555, Dec. 18. 

KATHARINE GOWCHES. 
GUILLEMINE GILBERT. 

Idem, ibidem. f The English Martyrology, in the 15th of June, 

t J. Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. viii. num. 89. 2 Kings ix 11. 

Numb. xxii. 28. 



WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

PEROTINE MASSEY ; whose husband, a minister of God s 
word, was for fear fled out of the Island. 

The first of these was the mother, a poor widow of St. Peter s 
Port, in the Isle of Guernsey ; the other two her daughters (but 
married women). These, in the reign "of queen Mary, were 
noted to be much absent from the church ; for which they were 
presented before Jaques Amy, then dean of the Island ; who, 
finding them to hold opinions against the real presence in the 
sacrament of the altar, condemned them to be burnt for here 
tics ; which was done accordingly, July 18, 1556. 

Add to these an infant without a Christian name ; and no 
Avonder it is never named, seeing properly it was never born ; 
but, by the force of the flame, burst out of his mother s belly, 
Perotine Massey aforesaid. This babe was taken up by W. 
House a by-stander, and by the command of Elier Gosselin the 
bailiff (supreme officer in the then absence of the governor of 
the Island) cast again into the fire, and therein consumed to 
ashes. It seems this bloody bailiff was minded, like the cruel 
tyrant, commanding, " Canis pessimi ne catulum esse relinquen- 
dum ;" though this indeed was no dog, but a lamb, and that of 
the first minute, and therefore too young, by the Levitical law, to 
be sacrificed. 

Here was a spectacle without precedent, a cruelty built three 
generations high, that grandmother, mother, and grandchild, 
should all suffer in the same flame. And know, reader, these 
martyrs dying in the Isle of Guernsey, are here reckoned in 
Hampshire, because that Island with Jersey (formerly subordinate 
to the archbishop of Constance in Normandy) have, since the reign 
of queen Elizabeth, being annexed to the diocese of Winchester, 

PRELATES. 

WILLIAM WICKHAM was born at Wickham in this county, 
being the son of John Perot and Sibel his w r ife, over whose 
graves he hath erected a chapel at Titchfield in this county ; 
and bred in the university of Oxford. He was otherwise called 
Long, from the height of his stature, as my author conceives,* 
though since it may be applied to the perpetuity of his memory, 
which will last as long as the world endureth, for his two fair 
foundations at 

Oxford, begun 1379 ;f finished 1386. The charter of the 
foundation of St. Mary s-College in Oxford, was dated the 26th 
of November 1379, in his manor in Southwark, since called 
Winchester-house. The scholars entered thereunto about nine 
a clock on the 14th day of April, in the same year. 

Winchester, begun 1387 ; finished 1393. The first stone was 
laid March 26, at nine o clock in the morning, in the 69th year 
of the age of the founder. 

* Godwin, in the Bishops of Winchester. 

f These dates are exactly transcribed out of the records of New College F. 



PRELATES. 9 

He died in the S^th year of his consecration, and 80th of his 
age, in the 5th year of the reign of king Henry the Fourth ; and 
his benefaction to learning is not to be paralleled by any Eng 
lish subject in all particulars. 

JOHN RUSSEL was born in this county, in the parish of Saint 
Peter s in the suburbs of Winchester.* He was bred fellow of 
New College ; and, when doctor of canon law, was chosen chan 
cellor of Oxford. Yea, that office, annual before, was first fixed 
on him, as in Cambridge on Bishop Fisher, for term of life, f 

By king Edward the Fourth he was advanced bishop of Lin 
coln, and by Richard the Third lord chancellor of England ;J 
having ability enough to serve any, and honesty too much to 
please so bad a king. And because he could not bring him to 
his bent, when the Lord Hastings was killed, this bishop, saith 
my author, was for a time imprisoned. He died January the 
30th, anno 1490, leaving this character behind him: "Vir fuit 
summa pietate, et ex rerum usu oppido quam prudens, doctrina 
etiam singulari."|| 

WILLIAM WARHAM was born at Ockley, of worshipful 
parentage in this county ; bred fellow and doctor of the laws in 
New College ;5[ employed by king Henry the Seventh (who 
never sent sluggard or fool on his errand) to Margeret duchess 
of Burgundy, and by him advanced bishop of London, then 
archbishop of Canterbury, living therein in great lustre, till 
eclipsed in power and profit by Thomas Wolsey, archbishop of 
York. 

It may be said, that England then had ten archbishops, if a 
figure and cipher amount to so many ; or else, if it had but two, 
they were archbishop Thomas and archbishop Wolsey, drawing 
all causes to his court-legatine, whilst all other ecclesiastical 
jurisdictions in England kept a constant vacation. This, War- 
ham bare with much moderation ; contenting himself, that, as 
he had less honour, so he had less envy, and kept himself cool, 
whilst Wolsey, his screen, was often scorched with just and 
general hatred. 

In the case of king Henry s divorce, he was the prime advo 
cate for queen Catherine ;** and carried it so cautiously, that he 
neither betrayed the cause of his client, nor incurred the king s 
displeasure. Nor will any wonder, that an archbishop of Can 
terbury did then plead before an archbishop of York, seeing the 
king at the same time was summoned before his subject. 

He survived Wolsey s ruin ; but never recovered his former 
greatness, blasted with a prcemunire with the rest of the clergy ; 

s Register of New College, in anno 1449. 
f Godwin, in Catalogue of Bishops of Lincoln. 
^ J. Philpot. in Catalogue of Chancellors, p. 65. 

Harpsfield, Historia Ecclesise Anglicanse, decimo quinto saeculo, c. 24. 
i Idem. ^ New College Register, in the year 1475. 

* Godwin, in the Archbishops of Canterbury. 



10 WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

and the heavier because the higher in dignity. He is said to 
have expended thirty thousand pounds in the repair of his pa 
laces ; the probable reason why he left no other public monu 
ments, though archbishop twenty-eight years, dying anno 
Domini 1533. 

ROBERT SHERBORN was born in this county;* and bred 
first in Winchester, and then in New College ; was a great 
scholar, and prudent mart ; employed in several embassies by 
king Henry the Seventh ; and by him preferred bishop, first of 
St. David s, then Chichester ; which church he decorated with 
many ornaments and edifices, especially the south side thereof; 
where, on the one side is the history of the foundation of the 
church, with the images of the kings of England :f on the 
other, the statues of all the bishops of this see, both those of 
Selsey and of Chichester. t 

He often inscribed for his motto, " Dilexi decorem domus 
tuee, Domine," (I have loved the beauty of thy house, O Lord) : 
and sometimes, " Credite operibus," (trust their works). 
Now although some may like his alms better than his trumpet, 
charity will make the most favourable construction thereof. 
Being ninety-six years of age, he resigned his bishopric, and 
died in the same year, anno Domini 1536. 

JOHN WHITE was born in this county, of a worshipful 
house; || began on the floor, and mounted up to the roof of 
spiritual dignity in this diocese. First scholar in Winchester, 
then fellow of New College in Oxford, then master of Winches 
ter school; then warden of that college, and at last (taking 
Lincoln bishopric in his passage) bishop of Winchester, all 
composed in this distich : ^[ 

" Me puero custos, ludi paulo ante magister, 
Vitus, et hac demum praesul in urbe fuit." 

I may call the latter a golden verse ; for it cost this White 
many an angel to make it true, entering into his bishopric on 
this condition, to pay cardinal Pole a yearly pension of a thou 
sand pounds. Now though this was no better than simony, yet 
the prelate s pride was so far above his covetousness, and his 
covetousness so far above his conscience, that he swallowed it 
without any regret. 

He was a tolerable poet ; and wrote an elegy on the eucha- 
rist, to prove the corporal presence, and confute Peter Martyr,** 
the first and last, I believe, who brought controversial divinity 

* New College Register, in the year 1474. 

f Camden s Britannia, in Sussex. 

Godwin, in his Bishops of Chichester. Ibid. 

II Sir J. Harrington, in the Bishops of Winchester. 

If Made by Christopher Johnson, afterwards schoolmaster of Winchester. 
** Pits, de Illustribus Angliae Scriptoribus, p. 763. 



PRELATES. 11 

into verses. He preached the funeral sermon of queen Mary 
(or, if you will, of public Popery in England), praising her so 
beyond all measure, and slighting queen Elizabeth without any 
cause, that he justly incurred her displeasure. This cost him 
deprivation and imprisonment, straiter than others of his order 
(though freer than any Protestant had under Popish persecutors) 
until his death, which happened at London about the year 1560. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

THOMAS BILSON was born in the city of Winchester ;* bred 
first scholar in Winchester school, then (taking New College in 
his passage) schoolmaster thereof, afterwards warden of the col 
lege, and at last (taking Worcester in his way) bishop of Win 
chester. As reverend and learned a prelate as England ever 
afforded ; witness his worthy works, " Of the perpetual Govern 
ment of Christ s Church/ and of " Christ s Descent into Hell ;" 
not 1. adpatiendum, to suffer, which was concluded on the cross 
with " It is finished ;"f nor, 2. ad pr&dicandum, to preach, use 
less where his auditory was all the forlorn hope ; neither, 3. ad li- 
berandum, to free any, pardon never coming after execution ; 
but, 4. ad possidendum, to take possession of hell, which he 
had conquered; and, 5. ad triumphandum, to triumph, which is 
honourable in hostico, in the enemies own country. 

The new translation of the Bible was by king James s com 
mand ultimately committed to his and Dr. Smith s^ (bishop of 
Gloucester) perusal ; who put the completing hand thereunto. 
His pious departure out of this life happened 1618. 

HENRY COTTON was born at Warblington in this county, 
being a younger son unto Sir Richard Cotton, knight, and privy 
councillor to king Edward the Sixth. Queen (whilst yet but a 
lady) Elizabeth, being then but twelve years of age, was his 
god-mother. He was bred in Magdalen College in Oxford, and 
was by the queen preferred bishop of Salisbury ; when she plea 
santly said, " that formerly she had blessed many of her god 
sons, but now her god-son should bless her ; " reflecting on the 
solemnity of episcopal benediction. He was consecrated No 
vember the 12th, 1598; at which time William Cotton (of ano 
ther family) was made bishop of Exeter ; the queen merrily say 
ing (alluding to the plenty of clothing in those parts) " that she 
hoped that now she had well cottoned the west." By his wife, 
whose name was Patience, he had nineteen children, and died 
May the 7th, 1615. 

ARTHUR LAKES was born in the parish of Saint Michael, 
in the town of Southampton ; bred first in Winchester school, 

" New College Register, anno 1565. f John xix. 30. 

% See the Life of Dr. Smith, prefixed to his Sermon. 

New College Register, anno 1589, wherein he was admitted. 



12 WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

then fellow of New College. In his own nature he preferred 
the fruitfulness of the vine, and fatness of the olive (painfulness 
in a private parish) before the government of the trees, had not 
immediate Providence, without his suit and seeking, preferred 
him successively warden of New College, prefect of Saint Crosses 
nigh Winchester, dean of Worcester, bishop of Bath and Wells, 
He continued the same in his rochet, what he^was in his 
scholar s gown ; and lived a real comment upon Saint PauFs 
character of a bishop : 

1. Blameless. Such as hated his order, could not cast any 
aspersion upon him. 

2. The husband of one wife. He took not that lawful liberty; 
but led a single life, honouring matrimony in his brethren who 
embraced it. 

3. Vigilant. Examining canonically in his own person all 
those whom he ordained. 

4. Sober, of good behaviour. Such his austerity in diet (from 
university-commons to his dying day) that he generally fed but 
on one (and that no dainty) dish, and fasted four times a week 
from supper. 

5. Given to hospitality. When master of Saint Crosses, he 
increased the allowance of the poor brethren in diet and other 
wise. When bishop, he kept fifty servants in his family, not so 
much for state or attendance on his person, but pure charity, 
in regard of their private need. 

6. Apt to teach. The living with his pious sermons, in his 
cathedral and neighbouring parishes ; and posterity with those 
writings he hath left behind him. 

7- Not given to wine. His abstemiousness herein was re 
markable. 

8. No striker, not given to filthy lucre. He never fouled his 
fingers with the least touch of Gehazi s reward, freely prefer 
ring desert. 

9. One that ruleth well his own house. The rankness of 
house-keeping brake not out into any riot ; and a chapter was 
constantly read every meal, by one kept for that purpose. 
Every night (besides cathedral and chapel prayers) he prayed in 
his own person with his family in his dining-room. 

In a word, his intellectuals had such predominancy of his 
sensuals, or rather grace so ruled in both, that the man in him 
being subordinate to the Christian, he lived a pattern of piety. 

I have read of one Arthur Faunt, a Jesuit, who, entering 
into orders, renounced his Christian name, because (forsooth) 
never legendary saint thereof, and assumed that of Lawrence.* 
This gracious Arthur was not so superstitiously scrupulous, and 
(if none before) may pass for the first saint of his name, dying 
in the fifty-ninth year of his age, anno Domini 1602. 

* Burton s Description of Leicestershire, p. 105. 



V. OHTIIIKS OF HAMPSHIRE. 13 



STATESMEN. 

RICHARD RICH, Knight, was, in the words of my author, "a 
gentleman well descended and allied in this county ; "* bred in 
the Temple, in the study of our common law, and afterwards 
became solicitor to king Henry the Eighth. His deposition on 
oath, upon words spoken to him in the Tower, was the sharp 
est evidence to cut off the head of Sir Thomas More. He was 
under Cromwell a lesser hammer to knock down abbeys, most 

^ -* 

of the grants of which lands going through his hands, no won 
der if some stuck upon his ringers. 

Under king Edward the Sixth he was made lord chancellor 
of England, discharging his place with prudence and equity for 
the term of five years. Foreseeing he should be ousted of his 
office (being of the anti-faction to duke Dudley), to prevent 
stripping, he politically put off his robes of st^le (resigning his 
office) ; which done, no danger of catching cold, his own under- 
suit was so well lined, having gotten a fair estate about Lees 
Abbey in Essex, whereof he was created baron. He died in 
the beginning of the reign of queen Elizabeth, being direct an 
cestor unto the light honourable Charles Rich, now earl of 
Warwick. 

[S. N.] WILLIAM POWLET (wherever born) had his largest 
estate and highest honour (baron of Basing, and marquis of 
Winchester) in this county. He was descended from a younger 
house of the Powlets of Hinton Saint George in Somersetshire, 
as by the crescent in his arms is acknowledged. One telleth 
us,f that he being a younger brother, and having wasted all that 
was left him, came to court on trust, where, upon the bare 
stock of his wit, he trafficked so wisely, and prospered so well, 
that he got, spent, and left, more than any subject since the 
Conquest. 

Indeed he lived at the time of the dissolution of abbeys, 
which was the harvest of estates ; and it argued idleness, if any 
courtier had his barns empty. He was servant to king Henry 
the Seventh, and for thirty years together treasurer to king 
Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, queen Mary, and queen 
Elizabeth. The latter, in some sort, owed their crowns to his 
counsel ; his policy being the principal defeater of duke Dud 
ley s design to disinherit them. 

I behold this lord Powlet like to aged Adoram, so often men 
tioned in Scripture, being over the tribute in the days of king 
David,J all the reign of king Solomon, until the first year of 
Rehoboam.|| And though our lord Powlet enjoyed his place 
not so many years, yet did he serve more sovereigns, in more 

* J. Philpot, in his Catalogue of Chancellors, p. 73. 

f Sir Robert Naunton, in his " Fragmenta Regalia." 

{ 2 Samuel xx. 24. 1 Kings iv. 6. || 1 Kings xii. 18. 



14 WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

mutable times, being (as he said of himself) "no oak, but 
an osier/ 

Herein the parallel holds not. The hoary hairs of Adoram 
were sent to the grave by a violent death, slain by the people in 
a tumult.* This lord had the rare happiness of evQavavia, set 
ting in his full splendour, having lived ninety-seven years, and 
seen 103 out of his body. He died anno Domini 1572. 

Sir THOMAS LAKES was born in the parish of St. Michael, 
in the town of Southampton, and there bred in grammar-learn 
ing, under Doctor Seravia. By several under-offices he was at 
last deservedly preferred secretary of state to king James. In 
credible his dexterity in dispatch, who at the same time would in 
dite, write, discourse, more exactly than most men could 
severally perform them. Men resembled him to one of the 
ships-royal of queen Elizabeth, called the Swiftsure, such his 
celerity and solidity in all affairs. No less his secresy in con 
cealing ; and what was credited to his counsel was always found 
in the same posture it was left in. Add to all these, he was a 
good man, and a good man s brother, Dr. Arthur Lakes, bishop 
of Bath and Wells. King James (who always loved what was 
facile and fluent) was highly pleased with his Latin pen, who 
by practice had made Tully s phrase his own. He was one of 
the three noble hands, who at the court first led Mr. George 
Villers into the favour of king James. 

At last he fell, for the faults of others, into the king s dis 
pleasure, being punished for the offences of one of his 
nearest relations ; and of all them fined in the star-chamber, he 
was the only person generally pitied for his suffering ; yet even 
then king James gave him this public eulogy in open court, 
" that he was a minister of state fit to serve the greatest prince 
in Europe." He was ousted his secretary s place, which needed 
him more than he it, having achieved a fair fortune, which he 
transmitted to posterity. How long he lived afterwards in a 
private life, is to me unknown. 

SOLDIERS. 

BEAVOIS, an Englishman, was earl of Southampton in the 
time of the Conqueror ; and, being unable to comport with his 
oppression, banded against him, with the fragments of the Eng 
lishmen, the strength of Hastings the Dane, and all the 
assistance the Welch could afford ; in whose country a battle 
was fought, near Carcliffe, against the Normans, anno Domini 
1070, wherein three nations were conquered by one. Beavois 
being worsted (success depends not on valour) fled to Carlisle 
(a long step from Carcliffe) ; and afterwards no mention what 
became of him. 

* 1 Kings xii. IS. 



SOLDIERS. 15 

This is that Beavois whom the monks cried up to be such a 
man, that since it hath been questioned whether ever such a 
man, I mean, whether ever his person was in rerum natura : so 
injurious those are, who, in the reports of any man s perform 
ances, exceed the bounds of probability. 

All I will add is this, that the sword preserved and showed 
to be this Beavoises in Arundel castle is lesser (perchance worn 
with age) than that of king Edward the Third, kept in West 
minster church. 

SEAMEN. 

Sir JOHN WALLOP, born in this county, of a most ancient 
and respected family, was directed by his genius to sea-service, 
at what time our coasts were much infested with French pira 
cies : for there was a knight of Malta, passing in our Chroni 
cles by the name of Prior John (more proper, by his profession, 
to be employed against the Turks, lately so victorious in Hun 
gary) who lived by pickeering, and undoing many English 
merchants. 

But our Sir John made the French pay more than treble 
damages, who, with eight hundred men, landed in Normandy, 
burnt one-and-twenty towns,* with divers ships in the havens 
of Traport, Staples, &c. ; and safely returned with wealth and 
victory. 

Methinks the ancient arms of the Wallhops appear prophe 
tical herein; viz. Argent, a bend unde Sable; interpreted by 
my author,t a wave, or surge of the sea, raised by some tur 
bulent flaw of wind and tempest, prognosticating the activity of 
that family in marine performances. 

ROBERT TOMSON, merchant, was born at Andover in this 
county; bred much at Bristol in sea employment.! Hence, 
anno 1553, he sailed into Spain, and thence two years after 
shipped himself for Nova Hispania, to make a discovery thereof ; 
on the same token that in his passage thither, in a Spanish ship, 
a light like a candle (being nothing else but a meteor frequent 
by sea and land) fell on their mainmast, which the Spaniards on 
their knees worshipped for St. Elmo, the advocate of sailors. 
He afterwards wrote the Description of New Spain, with the 
city of Mexico, giving a good and the first account thereof of 
any Englishman. 

During his abode many months in Mexico, at dinner he let 
fall some discourse against Saint-worship, for which he was im 
prisoned in the Holy-house, and enjoined solemn penance by 
the archbishop of Mexico ; this Tomson, being the first (re 
puted) heretic, which was ever seen in America on a penitential 

* Holinshed, Stow, ed. Herbert, in this year, 
f Gwillim s Display of Heraldry, p. 50. 
i Hackluit s Voyages, Vol. III. p. 437. Ibtd. p. 450. 



1G AVORTIITES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

scaffold. Hence he was sent into Spain ; and, after three years 
durance in the Inquisition, discharged. Here a Spanish mer 
chant s daughter, Mary de la Barrera by name, fell in love with 
him, and became his wife, worth to him in bars of gold and sil 
ver two thousand five hundred pounds, besides jewels of great 
price.* Returning into England, he lived with great comfort 
and credit therein ; so that it may truly be said of him, " He had 
been undone, if (by the cruelty of his enemies) he had not been 
undone." 

WRITERS. 

LAMPRID of Winchester was bred a Benedictine therein, 
Congregations Giribenne, saith my author,t wherein I am not 
ashamed to confess my ignorance. Such his learning in those 
days, that he got the general name of Doctor Eximius, though 
his few works still extant answer not the proportion of so high 
a title. He flourished anno 980. 

WOLSTANUS of Winchester, bred a Benedictine, therein at 
tained to the reputation of a great scholar. I listen attentively 
to the words of W. MalmsburyJ (who could ken a learned man) 
giving him this character : " Vir fuit eruditus, homo etiam 
bonee vita et castigatee eloquentiae." But, it seemeth, his elo 
quence was confined to poetry ; my author observing, that 
"Oratione soluta nunquam polite scripsit." He nourished 
anno 1000. 

JOHN of Basingstoke, so called from a fair market town in 
this county, where he was born. We have a double demonstra 
tion of his signal worth ; first, because Robert Grosthead that 
pious and learned bishop (who would not advance any thing 
which was under eminency) preferred him archdeacon of Lei 
cester : secondly, the pens of Bale and Pits,|| diametrically 
opposite one to the other, meet both in his commendation. 
Being bred first in Oxford, then in Paris, thence he travelled 
into Athens (Athens as yet was Athens, not routed by Turkish 
tyranny) ; where he heard the learned lectures of one Constan- 
tina, a "noble woman! (not fully twenty years old),** of the 
abstruse mysteries of nature. Coming home, he brought back 
many precious books, and had good skill in the Greek tongue 
(whereof he wrote a Grammar), and is justly reputed the first 
restorer thereof in England. He was the author of many wor 
thy works ; and died anno 1252, on whom Matthew Paris be 
stowed this eulogy, " Vir in trivio et quatrivio ad plenum eru- 
ditus."tt 

* Hackluit s Voyages, Vol. III. p. 451. f Pits, aetate decima, num. 149, 

\ Libro secundo, de Gestis Reg. Anglise. 

Description of Britain, cent, quarta, p. 302. 

i| De Scriptoribus Britannicis. ^1 Idem. Idem. 

jf Tn Chron, ad ann. 64. 



WRITERS. 17 

JOHN of HIDE* was a monk in the abbey of Hide, in the 
suburbs of Winchester, and became a competent historian 
according to the rate of those times, writing certain Homilies, a 
book " Of the Patience of Job," and the " Story of his own 
Convent." He flourished anno 1284. 

WILLIAM ALTON, a native of a known market-town in this 
county, was a Dominican, or preaching friar, famous even 
amongst foreigners for his sermons and sound judgment, 
avouching the Virgin Mary tainted with original corruption. 
He flourished anno 1330. 

WILLIAM LILLIE was born at Odiam, a market-town in 
this county,f and travelled in his youth as far as Jerusalem. 
In his return, he staid at Rhodes, and studied Greek ; which 
will seem strange to some, Rhodes not being Rhodes in that 
age (except casually some great critic was there) ; seeing other 
wise to find elegant in modern Greek (soured with long con 
tinuance) is as impossible as to draw good wine out of a vessel 
of vinegar. 

Hence he went to Rome, where he heard John Sulpitius and 
Pomponius Sabinus, great masters of Latin in those days. 
After his return, dean Colet made him the first master of St. 
Paul s school, which place he commendably discharged for fif 
teen, years. Here he made his Latin grammar, which this 
great schoolmaster modestly submitted to the correction of 
Erasmus ; and therefore such who will not take it on the single 
bond of Lillie may trust on the security of Erasmus. 

Some charge it for surfeiting with variety of examples, who 
would have had him only to set down the bare rules, as best 
for children s remembrance. But they may know that such who 
learnt grammar in LilhVs time were not schoolboys, but school 
men ; I mean, arrived at men s estate. Many since have altered and 
bettered his grammar ; and amongst them my worthy friend Dr. 
Charles Scarborough ; calculating his short, clear, and true rules 
for the meridian of his own son ; which in due time may serve 
for general use. Our Lillie died of the plague,;}: and was bu 
ried in the porch of Saint Paul s, anno Domini 1522. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

MICHAEL RENEGER was born in this county, and bred fel 
low in Magdalen College in Oxford, where he gained great 
credit for his skill in learning and languages. He wrote a book 
in the Defence of Ministers Marriage. 

Pits, de Illustribus Angliae Scriptoribus. 

Bale^de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. viii. num. 64. 
\ Stow s Survey of London, p. 370. 
Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. ix. num. 78. 
VOL. II. C 



18 WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

THOMAS STERNHOLD was born in this county,* and was af 
terwards a servant to king Henry the Eighth. I find him a le 
gatee in his will, thus mentioned : <e Item, To Thomas Sternhold, 
groom of our robes, a hundred mark." 

He was afterwards (saith my author) f ab intimo cubiculo to 
king Edward the Sixth ; though I am not satisfied whether* 
thereby he meant gentleman of his privy chamber, or groom <Or 
his bed chamber. 

He was a principal instrument of translating the Psalms 
into English meter ; the first twenty-six (and seven-and-thirty 
in all) being by him performed. Yet had he other assistance in 
that work. Many a bitter scoff hath since been past on their 
endeavours by some wits, which might have been better em 
ployed. Some have miscalled these their translations Geneva 
gigs ; and, which is the worst, father, or mother rather, the ex 
pression on our virgin queen, as falsely as other things have 
been charged upon her. Some have not sticked to say, " that 
David hath been as much persecuted by bungling translators, 
as by Saul himself." Some have made libellous verses in abuse 
of them ; and no wonder if songs were made on the translators 
of the psalms, seeing drunkards^ made them on David the au 
thor thereof. 

But let these translations be beheld by impartial eyes, and 
they will be allowed to go in equipage with the best poems in 
that age. However, it were to be wished that some bald rhymes 
therein were bettered ; till which time such as sing them must 
endeavour to amend them, by singing them with understanding 
heads, and gracious hearts, whereby that which is bad meter on 
earth will be made good music in heaven. 

As for our Thomas Sternhold, it was happy for him that- he 
died before his good master, anno 1549, in the month of August ; 
so probably preventing much persecution, which had happened 
unto him if surviving in the reign of queen Mary. 

DAVID WHITEHEAD (where born to me unknown) is here 
placed, because I find a worshipful and ancient family of his 
name in this county. He was bred a bachelor of divinity in Ox 
ford ; and, flying into Germany in the reign of queen Mary, was 
in high esteem at Frankfort with the English congregation. 
After his return, queen Elizabeth proffered him great preferment. 
And it seems, in the first of her reign, the archbishop of Can 
terbury went a wooing to accept thereof; viz. to 1. John Feck- 
enham, refusing it upon a popish account, because he would not 
subscribe to the queen s supremacy : 2. Nicholas Wotton, 
doctor of law, and dean of Canterbury, refusing it on a politic 
account, suspecting the queen s short life, and fearing alterations 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. ix. num. 79. f Idem, ibidem. 

Psalm Ixix. 12. Rinerius, in Historia Benedictinorum. 



V 

I 

M 



WRITERS. 19 

in the state :* 3. This Whitehead, who declined it out of his 
desire of privacy, though some causelessly suspected him for 
disaffection to church discipline.f For he was, by queen Eli 
zabeth, offered the mastership of the hospital of the Savoy,J 
which he might have accepted without any subscription, but 
would not, affirming he could live plentifully on the preaching 
of the gospel ; a rare example of moderation. He was a deep 
divine, and was chosen one of the disputants, primo Elizabethae, 
against the popish bishops. His many books, still extant, tes 
tify his learning and religion. 

Queen Elizabeth highly valued his company, the rather be 
cause of his conscientious bluntness, wherein one repartee may 
be remembered. The queen, who ever was <f iniquior in sacer- 
dotes maritatos," said unto him, " Whitehead, I love thee the 
better, because thou art unmarried/ "In truth, Madam, 
said he, " I love you the worse because you are unmarried. 
He died anno Domini 1571. 

NICHOLAS FULLER was, as I have cause to conceive, born in 
this county ; and, when a youth, was amanuensis or scribe to 
Dr. Home, bishop of Winchester; afterwards he attended, as 
tutor servant, on Sir Henry Wallop to Oxford ; and returning 
thence, was made minister of Allington nigh Salisbury in Wilt 
shire, where he had a benefice rather than a living, so small the 
revenues thereof. But a contented mind extendeth the smallest 
parish into a diocese, and improveth the least benefice into a 
bishopric. 

Here a great candle was put under a bushel, or peck rather, 
so private his place and employment. Here he applied his stu 
dies in the tongues, and was happy in pitching on (not difficult 
trifles, but) useful difficulties, tending to the understanding of 
Scripture. He became an excellent linguist; and his books 
found good regard beyond the seas, where they were reprinted. 

Drusius, the Belgian critic, grown old, angry, and jealous that 
he should be outshined in his own sphere, foully cast some 
drops of ink upon him, which the other as fairly wiped off again. 
He charged Master Fuller for being his plagiary, taking his best 
notes from him without any acknowledgment thereof. Master 
Fuller confessed himself always desirous of Drusius s works, but 
never able, such his poverty, to purchase them, and therefore he 
could not steal out of those books which his eye never beheld ; 
and (not to be partial to my namesake) let the world judge 
whether Fuller s miscellane be not as good as Drusius s wheat. 

Bishop Andrewes came to him, as the queen of Sheba to So 
lomon, to pose him with hard questions, bringing with him a 
heap of knots for the other to untie, and departed from him 
with good satisfaction. He afterwards bestowed on him a great 

* Holinshed s Chronicle, p. 1403. f Heroologia Angliae, p. 173. 

f Idem, ibid. Lord Verulam, in his Apophthegms. 

c 2 



20 WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

living in this county, which Master Fuller did not long enjoy. 
He was most eminent for that grace which is most worth, yet 
costeth the least to keep it ; I mean humility, who in his writ 
ings doth as fairly dissent from, as freely concur with, any man s 
opinions. He died about the y.ear of our Lord 1626. 

THOMAS JAMES was born in the Isle of Wight ;* bred first 
in Winchester, then at New College in Oxford, and afterwards 
proceeded doctor in divinity. He was chosen by Sir Thomas 
Bodley the keeper of his inestimable library in Oxford. And, 
on serious consideration, one will conclude the library made for 
him, and him for it ; like tallies, they so fitted one another. 
Some men live like moths in libraries, not being better for the 
books, but the books the worse for them, which they only soil 
with their fingers. Not so Dr. James, who made use of books 
for his own and the public good. He knew the age of a manu 
script by looking upon the face thereof, and by the form of the 
character could conclude the time wherein it was written. 

He was a member of the Convocation held with the Parlia 
ment of Oxford, primo Caroli, where he made a motion, that 
some might be commissioned to peruse the manuscript Fathers 
in all public and private English libraries, that thereby the for 
gery of foreign popish editions might be detected. 

I believe his design had formerly been by him pursued for 
many years, as appears by this passage in Mr. Camden :f 

"Tho. James Oxoniensis, vir eruditus et vere 4>iAa/3t/3\oe, qui 
se totum literis et libris involvit, et jam publici boni studio in 
Angliae Bibliothecis excutiendis (Deus opus secundet !) id moli- 
tur, quod Reipublicee literarise imprimis erit usui." 

He never attained higher preferment than the subdeanery of 
Wells ; and, dying 1628, was buried in the chapel of New Col 
lege in Oxford. 

[S. N.] CHARLES BUTLER was bred master of arts, in Mag 
dalen College in Oxford, and afterwards beneficed in this 
county. An excellent musician, who wrote a book of 
Principles of Music," in singing and setting, with the twofold 
use thereof (ecclesiastical and civil) ; and a critical Englishman, 
having composed a grammar of our language. He also wrote a 
" Book of Bees ;" wherein, as if he had been their secretary, he 
appears most knowing in the state mysteries of their common 
wealth ; whence one, not unhandsomely, on his book :J 

Aut d. consiliu Apibus, Sutler e,fuii,ti; 

Aut ft consiliis est Apis ipsa tuis. 
" Butler, he ll say (who these thy writings sees) 
Bees counsel thee, or else thou counsellest Bees. 

I behold these his books as the receptacle of the leakage and 
superfluities of his study ; and it is no trespass on grace 

* New College Register, anno 1593. t Britannia, in Monmouthshire. 

t In the verses ad Authorem, 



ROMISH EXILE WRITERS. 21 

to walk and take a turn in the field of Nature. He was also a 
pious man, a painful preacher, and a solid divine : witness his 
excellent book of " The Marriage of Cousin Germans," ap 
proved and commended by Doctor Prideaux as the best ever 
written on that subject. I conjecture he died about the year 
1640. 

ROMISH EXILE WRITERS. 

RICHARD WHITE was born at Basingstoke in this county;* 
bred first in Winchester school, then in New College in Oxford. 
In the beginning of queen Elizabeth, leaving the land, he lived 
first at Louvain, then in Padua in Italy, where he proceeded 
doctor of the laws. Afterwards he became Regius Professor 
at Douay for the space of thirty years and more. He wrote 
many books, and, amongst the rest, a British and English His 
tory, which hitherto I have not been so happy as to see, save at 
the second hand, as often cited by Mr. Selden, which makes me 
believe much merit therein. 

Surely he was better employed in the writing thereof, than in 
the large Comment he hath made on the enigmatical epitaph 
set up at Bononia : " ./Elia Laelia Crispis, &c." Which many 
think merely made by a conceited brain, on design to puzzle 
intellects, to create sense by their ingenuity and industry, which 
was never intended therein ; for I am clearly of his opinion, 
who said, " Qui ea scribit legi, quae non vult intelligi, debet 
negligi." 

I have nothing else to observe of this Richard White, save 
that, after he had successively married two wives, f he was made 
a priest by the special dispensation of Pope Clement the Eighth ; 
and that he was alive at Douay, 1611. 

JOHN PITS was born in this county, nigh the market town of 
Aulton ; witness his words, " in vicinio J cujus oppidi natus 
sum ego." Son he was to Henry Pits and Elizabeth his wife, 
sister to Nicholas Sanders. It is hard to say whether his 
hands took more pains in writing, or feet in travelling, if the list 
of his laborious life be perused, whereby he will appear a very 
aged person. At eleven years of age he went to the school of 
Winchester, 1 1 ; seven years he staid there, until chosen unto 
New College, 18 ; two years he lived in Oxford, and then went 
beyond the seas, 20 ; one year he staid and studied in the col 
lege of Rheims, 21 ; thence going to Rome, he lived seven 
years there in the English college, and was ordained priest, 28 ; 
returning to Rheims, two years he there taught rhetoric and 
Greek, 30 ; then lived in Lorrain and in Triers two years, 32 ; 

He writeth himself, in his book, " of Basing-Stoak." 
Pits, de Illustrious Angliae Scriptoribus, p. 806. 
Pits, in the Life of William Aulton, in anno 1330, 
Idem, in his own Life, p. 817. 



22 WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

three years at Ingolstad in Bavaria, where he was made D. D. 
35 ; made canon of Verdun in Lorrain, and lived there two 
years, 37 ; then for twelve years he was confessor to the duchess 
of Cleve, 49. Here he wrote many volumes of several subjects ; 
one of the apostolical men, another of the kings and bishops in 
England ; but, because he survived not to see them set forth, he 
was as good as his word, " mecum morientur, et sepelientur," 
(with him they died, and were buried.) Only that his book is 
brought to light, which is intituled, " De Illustribus Anglise Scrip- 
toribus " a subject formerly handled by many ; so that some 
stick not to say, /. Leland is the industrious bee, working all : 
/. Bale is the angry wasp, stinging all : J. Pits is the idle drone, 
stealing all. 

For my part, I have made much use of his endeavours to help 
me with many writers, especially with such English Papists as 
have been since the Reformation. Nor will I pay him with 
railing, from whose pen I have borrowed much information. 
Some wonder at his invectiveness : I wonder more, that he in- 
veigheth so little; and seeing he was sister s son to black- 
mouthed Sanders, it is much that he doth not more avunculize 
in his bitterness against Protestants. 

After the death of Anthonia duchess of Cleve, he returned the 
third time into Lorrain, where the bishop of Toul (who formerly 
had been his scholar) gave him the deanery of Liverdune, a 
place of good credit and revenue, where quietly he reposed him 
self for the remainder of his life for many years ; and, dying 
anno 1616, was there buried, 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

Besides bishop WICKHAM (of whom before), who alone may 
pass for ten, I meet with none of grand remark before the Re 
formation ; since it, besides many of meaner note, I find two of 
signal charity. 



Sir WILLIAM DODDINGTON, Knight, high sheriff of this 
county in the third of king James, kept a bountiful house at 
Bremer therein. Succeeding to an unexpected estate, he had 
the words of David frequently in his mouth ; " What am I ? or 
what is my Father s house, that thou hast brought me hitherto ?" 
Having a godly jealousy that some former disasters in his 
family had been caused by God s displeasure on his ancestors 
for holding so many impropriations, he freely and fully restored 
them to the church, settling them as firmly as law could devise 
to a greater yearly value than many will believe, or any imitate. 
Yet was he a man of mourning, or son of affliction, all the days 
of his life. No sooner had he seen Herbert his eldest son, a 
most hopeful gentleman, married to a considerable co-heiress in 
Somersetshire, but he beheld him snatched away by an untimely 
death. What tragedies have since happened in his household, 



BENEFACTORS MEMORABLE PERSONS. 23 

is generally known. All these he bare with saint-like patience ; 
"hearing the rod," (that is, understanding and obeying it) 
i( and him who appointed it."* In a word, God, the skilful 
lapidary, polished him with sharp instruments, that he then did 
glister as a pearl here, who now shineth as a star in heaven. 
He died about the year of our Lord 1638. 

[S. N.] JOSEPH DIGGONS, Esquire, was of Dutch extraction 
(whose father was a seaman of Trinity-house ;) but had his 
longest habitation in this county, in a house of his own build 
ing at Wetham in the parish of Liss. He was bred a fellow- 
commoner of Clare Hall in Cambridge, and afterwards became 
a barrister in the Temple. By his will he gave to Clare Hall 
(where none knew his face, nor remembered his name, save 
the worthy master Dr. Pask) all his estate in land, of very 
improvable rents, to the value of one hundred and thirty 
pounds per annum, for the founding of fellowships and scholar 
ships, at the discretion of the master and fellows. He made 
Mr. Pickering, an attorney of Clements-Inn (living at Oldham in 
this county), an overseer of his will, who faithfully gave the col 
lege notice thereof, and was very useful and assistant to them in 
the settling of the lands aforesaid. Mr. Diggons died anno 1658. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

We must not forget one (better known to me by his inven 
tion than his name) who, dwelling at Stockbridge in this county, 
made so artificial a plough, that, by the help of engines and 
some contrivances, it might be drawn by dogs, and managed by 
one man, who would plough in one day well nigh an acre of the 
light ground in this county. This plough I saw (some thirty 
years since) at Stockbridge aforesaid. 

But the project was not taking, beheld rather as pretty than 
profitable ; though in the judgment of wise men this ground 
work might have been built upon, and invention much im 
proved by the skilful in mathematics ; for I have heard that 
some politicians are back friends (how justly I know not) to 
such projects, which (if accomplished) invite the land to a loss, 
the fewer poor being thereby set a-work ; that being the best 
way of tillage, which employeth most about it, to keep 
them from stealing and starving ; so that it would not be 
beneficial to the state, might a plough be drawn by butterflies, 
as which would draw the greater burden on the common 
wealth, to devise other ways for the maintenance of the poor. 

The mentioning of these plough-drawing dogs mindeth me 
(one rarity attracteth another) of other dogs in this county, 
more useful for the commonwealth, meeting with this pas 
sage in a modern author :f 

* Micah vi. 9. | Britannia Baconica, in Hampshire, p. 51. 



24 



WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 



It is reported, that about Portsmouth is a race of small 
dogs, like beagles, that they use there to hunt moles, which 
they hunt as their proper natural game." 

If this be true, I wish the continuance and increase of the 
breed of this kind of canes venatici. And though the pleasure 
be not so much as in hunting of hares, the profit is more in 
destroying those malignant pioneers, mischievous to grass, 
more to grain, most to gardens. 

LORD MAYORS. 

It is no less true than strange, that this county, so large in 
itself, so near to London, weekly changing cloth for money 
therewith, is Ao-v/</3oXoc ; I mean, hath not contributed one to 
this topic. Such as suspect the truth thereof will be satisfied, 
on their exact survey of Stew s u Survey of London." 

THE NAMES OF THE GENTRY IN THIS SHIRE, 

RETURNED INTO THE TOWER BY THE COMMISSIONERS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR 
OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH, ANNO 1433. 

H. Ep us Winton, cardinalis Anglise; Reginaldus le Warre, 
miles ; Johannes Lysle, et Johannes Brewe de Stapule 
(knights for the shire) ; -Commissioners to take the oaths. 



Walteri Sandes, chevalier. 
Johannis Popham, chevalier. 
Johannis Uvedale. 
Willielmi Warbleton. 
Thomce Tame. 
Willielmi Fauconer. 
Roberti Dyngle. 
Stephani Popham, chevalier. 
Willielmi Brokays. 
Willielmi Ryngebourne. 
Walteri Veere, 
Johannis Hampton. 
Johannis Gyffard. 
Johannis Brinkeley. 
Petri Condraye. 
Johannis Skilling. 
Thomse Ringewood, senior. 
Willielmi Persh. 
Jonannis Racket. 
Johannis Haymowe. 
Roberti Fursey. 
Roberti Tylbourgh. 
Willielmi Astel. 
Johannis Balon. 
Johannis Bray. 
Johannis Purbyke. 
Johannis Catevan. 



Willielmi Clive. 
Willelmi Chellys. 
Johannis Faukoner, 
Johannis Mofunt. 
Willielmi Tested. 
Richardi Rumsey. 
Willielmi Burton. 
Roberti Whittehede. 
Richardi Spicer. 
Johannes atte Berwe, de 

Charleford. 
Johannis Lawrence. 
Thomae Rockley, 
Thomse Yardly. 
Thomse Benebury. 
Willielmi Wellis. 
Johannis Escote. 
Johannis Rotherfield. 
Richardi Parkere. 
Johannis Kybbyll. 
Johannis Barbour. 
Symonis Almayn. 
Willielmi Farcy. 
Richardi Punchardon. 
Nicholai Bernard. 
Nicholai Banestre. 
Thomae Wayte, 



GENTRY SHERIFFS. 25 

It will be worth our inquiry, who this chief commissioner 
Henry bishop of Winchester was, with his insolent title of " Car 
dinal of England." I find many eminent epithets (but none of 
the quorum of Saint PauFs bishops) meeting in his person ; viz. 
noble, rich, valiant, politic, and long-lived : Noble, being son of 
John a Gaunt, by Katherine Swinford (born at Beaufort in 
France, whence he had his name), brother to king Henry the 
Fourth, uncle to king Henry the Fifth, great uncle to king 
Henry the Sixth : Rich, commonly called the rich cardinal. 
In his time the king and courtiers cast a covetous eye on 
church -endowments, but were diverted from longer looking on 
them by the council of archbishop Chichly, and coin of this 
bishop Beaufort ; the former putting the king upon the war 
with France, the latter lending him, on good security, twenty 
thousand pounds, a sum sounding high in those days. He was 
also called, rar i^o-^v, the cardinal of England, though we had 
another (and his senior) at the same time of the same order ; 
viz. Thomas Langley, bishop of Durham : Valiant, being the 
pope s legate (in plain English, the pope s general), leading his 
army into Bohemia, in which service he behaved himself fortius 
quam episcopum decebat : Worldly politic, venting words on his 
death-bed to this purpose, " that if all England " (some report 
ers take a longer circuit) " would preserve his life, he was able 
by his purse to purchase or by policy to procure it " Long life, 
having been bishop of Lincoln and Winchester fifty years ; yet 
was he so far from being weaned from the world, he sucked the 
hardest (as if he would have bit off the nipples thereof) the 
nearer he was to his grave, dying anno 1447- 

He was in his generation (by a charitable antiperistasis) fixed 
betwixt bishops Wickham and Wainfleet; but did not equal 
them in his benefactions to the public, though he founded a 
fair hospital in Winchester, a work (no doubt) more acceptable 
to God, than when he, anno 141 7> undertook and performed 
a dangerous voyage to Jerusalem. 

It is, in my apprehension, very remarkable, that the three 
aforesaid bishops of Winchester, Wickham, Beaufort, and 
Wainfleet, sat successively in that see six score years lacking 
two, not to be paralleled in any other bishopric. 

To take our leave of this great cardinal, we read of king 
Josiah, " now the rest of the acts of king Josiah and his good 
ness,"* &c. But as for this prelate, the rest of his acts and his 
greatness, we leave to such as are desirous thereof to collect 
them out of our English historians. 

SHERIFFS. 
Anno HENRY II. Anno 

3 Turcinus vie. 
2 Turcinus vie. 4 

* 2 Chronicles xxxv. 26. 



26 



WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 



Anno 

5 Turcinus vie. 

6 

7 Rich, films Turcini, for 

nine years. 
16 Hugo de Gundevill, for 

four years. 

20 Herudus de Stratton, et 
Hugo de Gundevill, for 
five years. 

25 Hen. de Stratton, et 
Hugo de Gundevile. 

26 Galf. films Aze, for eight 

years. 

RICHARD I. 

1 Galf. films Azon. 

2 Ogerus filius Ogeri. 

3 Joh. de Rebez. 

4 Will. Briewere. 

5 Ogerus filius Ogeri. 

6 Hugo de Bosco, for five 

years. 

REX JOHAN. 

1 Hugo de Basco. 

2 Idem. 

3 Will. Briewere, et 
Rad. de Bray. 

4 Galf. filius Petri. et 
Will. Stokes. 

5 Idem. 

6 Rog. filius Ade, for four 
years. 

10 Walt. Briewere, et 
Alan de Bockland. 

11 Idem. 

12 Will. Briewere. 

13 Hugo de Nevill, et 
Galf. de Salvaozins. 

14 Idem. 

15 Idem. 

16 Will, de S to Johanne. 

17 Will. Briewere, et 
Will, de S to Johanne. 

HENR. III. 

1 

2 Pet. Winton. Epis. et 



Anno 

Will, de Schorewell, for 

seven years. 

9 Rich. Epis. Saresb. et 
Bartholomew de Kernes. 

10 Idem. 

11 Rich. Epis. Saresb. et 
Gilb de Staplebrigg. 

12 Idem. 

13 Nich. de Molis, et 
Walt, de Romsey. 

14 Nich. de Molis, et 
Hen. de Bada. 

15 Idem. 

16 Idem. 

17 Pet. Winton. Epis. et 
Rog. Wascelin. 

18 Idem. 

19 Hen. filius Nicholai. 

20 Hen. filius Nich. et 
Rob. de Mara. 

21 Galf. de Insula. 

22 Idem. 

23 Idem. 

24 Emueus de Lacy. 

25 Idem. 

26 Idem. 

27 R. Passelewe, for six years. 

33 Rob. Passell. 

34 Hen. Facull, for six years. 

40 Hen. de Farneleg. 

41 Ja. le Savage. 

42 Joh. le Jac. Savage. 

43 Idem. 

44 Will, de Wintershull. 

45 Regin. filius Petri, et 
Joh. de Flemer. 

46 Idem. 

47 Regin. filius Petri, et 
Hereward de Marisco. 

48 Idem. 

49 Joh. de Botele. 

50 Idem. 

51 Gerar. de Grue. 

52 Joh. le Botele. 

53 Idem. 

54 Idem. 

55 Will, de Wintershull. 

56 Idem. 



SHERIFFS. 



27 



Anno 



EDW. I. 



1 Will, de Wintershull. 

2 Hen. de Shotebroke. 

3 Job. de Havering, for four 

years. 

7 Will, de Braybofe. 

8 Idem. 

9 Phil, de Foynil. 

10 Idem. 

11 Idem. 

12 Simon, de Winton. 

13 Idem. 

14 Will, de Bremschete, for 

four years. 

18 Ingeramus de Waleys. 

19 Idem. 

20 Rich. Aston. 

21 Idem. 

22 Hugo de Chickenhull, for 

four years. 

26 Tho. de Warblington, for 
four years. 

30 Job. de Gerbg. 

31 Tho. de Warblington. 

32 Idem. 

33 Idem. 

34 Phil, de Foynil. 

35 Idem. 

EDW. II. 

1 Tho. de Warblington, for 
five years. 

6 Ja. de Norton, et 
Jo. de la Bech. 

7 Idem. 

8 Job. de la Bech. 

9 Idem. 

10 Idem. 

11 Rich. Byflett. 

12 Rob. de Norton. 

13 Ja. de Norton. 



Anno 

14 Job. de Tichburne. 

15 Nul. Tit. Com. in hoc Ro- 

tulo. 
16 

17 Job. de Scures. 

18 Idem. 

19 Idem. 

EDW. III. 

1 Job. de Scuresj for twelve 
years. 

13 Rob. Daundelin. 

14 Rob. de Popeham, et 
Rob. de Daundelin. 

15 Job. de Palton, et 
Tho. de Chisenhall. 

16 Job. de Palton. 

17 Th. de Apsall, for five 

years. 

22 Hen. Sturmy. 

23 Idem. 

24 Idem. 

26 Job. de Winchester, for 
four years. 

29 Will, de Overton. 

30 Job. de Palton. 

31 Walt, de Hay wood, for 

four years. 

35 Tho. de Hampton, for five 
years. 

40 Nich. Woodlocke. 

41 Rad. Thurnbarne. 

42 Idem. 

43 Petr. Brugg. 

44 Job. Bottiller. 

45 Idem. 

46 Tho. Warner. 

47 Phil, de Popham. 

48 Laur. de S to Martino. 

49 Rich. Pauncefort. 

50 Theob. de Gorges. 

51 Tho. Boklands. 



SHERIFFS OF HAMPSHIRE. 

Anno Name and Arms. Place. 

1 Rad. de Norton. 

Arms : V. a lion rampant O. 

2 Job. Butteshome. 



28 WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

3 Walt. Ramsey. 

4 Will. Kingborne. 

5 Hugo Crane. 

6 Joh. Sandes. 

Arg. a cross ragulee trunked G. 

7 Joh. Shownes. 

8 Joh. de la Zouch. 

9 Joh. Showne. 

10 Rob. Cholmleigh. 

G. two helmets in chief and a garb in base proper. 

11 Joh. Uvedale. 

Arg. a cross moline G. 

12 Hen. Popham. 

Arg. on a chevron G. two bucks heads cabossed O. 

13 Nic. Dabrichcourt. 

Erm. three bars humetts G. 

14 Phil. Baynard. 

15 Rob. Cholmleigh . . ut prius. 

16 Rob. Dynlye. 

17 Rob. Attemore. 

18 Johan. Sands, et . ut prius. 
Tho. Warner. 

19 Tho. Warner. 

20 Joh. Waytes. 

21 Will. Audley. 

22 Idem. 

HEN. IV.. 

1 Joh. Dovedale. 

2 Joh. Waterton, et 
Joh. Chamfloure. 

3 Joh. Barkley. 

G. a chevron betwixt ten crosses formee Arg. 

4 Edw. Cawdrey. 

S. ten billets O. four, three, two, one. 

5 Idem ut prius. 

6 Joh. Tichbourne. 

Vairy ; a chief O. 

7 Joh. Berkeley, mil. . . ut prius. 

8 Will. Marshall. 

S. three bars Arg. and a canton G. 

9 Tho. Uvedall ...-./ prius. 

10 Will. Bremsheere. 

11 Walt. Sands, mil. . . ut prius. 

12 WiU. Warblington. 

HEN. V. 

Tho. Chaucer .... BERKSHIRE. 

Partie per pale Arg. and G. a bend counterchanged. 



SHERIFFS. 29 

Anno Name. Place. 

2 Job. Uvedale .... ut prius. 

3 Will. Brokes. 

4 Tho. Wickham, mil. 

5 Edw. Cowdrey . . . ut prius. 

6 Will. Bremsbeth. 

7 Joh. Uvedale .... ut prius. 

8 Will. Kingborne. 

9 Idem. 

HENRY VI. 

1 Joh. Uvedale .... ut prius. 

2 Walt. Sands, mil. . . ut prius. 

3 Joh. de Boys, mil. 

Arg. a chevron S. betwixt three acorns G. ; on a canton 
Az. a pair of wings conjoined O. 

4 Mauric. Brown . . . SURREY. 

S. three lions passant gardant betwixt two bends geme- 
ros Arg. 

5 Joh. Uvedale .... ut prius. 

6 Steph. Popham . . . ut prius. 

7 Will. Brokes. 

8 Tho. Thame. 

9 Joh. Seymoure. 

G. two angels wings paleways inverted O. 

10 Walt. Veere. 

Quarterly G. and O. in the first a mullet Arg. 

11 Joh. Giffard. 

12 Joh. Uvedale .... ut prius. 

13 Rob. Domley. 

14 Will. Brokes. 

15 Joh. Seymor, mil. . . ut prius. 

16 Will. Fauconer. 

S. three falcons close Arg. 

17 Tho. Uvedale .... ut prius. 

18 Joh. Lisle, mil. 

O. a fess betwixt two chevrons S. 

19 Steph. Popham, mil. . ut prius. 

20 Joh. Rogers. 

21 Tho. Thame. 

22 Hen. Trencard . . . DORSETSHIRE. 

Per pale Arg. and Az. three pallets S. 

23 Tho. Montgomery. 

G. a chevron betwixt three flower-de-luces O. 

24 Tho. Molegues. 

25 Hen. Brum. 

26 Tho Uvedale .... ut prius. 

27 Rob. Fenns. 



30 WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

28 Rich. Dalingrug. 

29 Tho. Warbleton. 

30 Tho. Uvedale . . . ut prius. 

31 Tho. Thame. 

32 Joh. Seymor, mil. . . ut prius. 

33 Joh. Wallop, arm. 

Arg. a bend wavy S. 

34 Mau. Berkeley . . . ut prius. 

35 Ber. Brokes. 

36 Joh. Paulett. 

Arg. three swords in pile S. hilts O. 

37 Hen. Brum. 

38 Joh. Philpot. 

S. a bend Erm. 

EDWARD IV. 

1 Joh. Wallop, arm. . . ut prius. 

2 Joh. Paulett, arm. . . ut grins. 

3 Idem ut prius. 

4 Tho. Uvedale . ut prius. 

5 Edw. Berkeley, arm. . ut prius. 

6 Galf. Gate, mil. 

7 Mau. Berkeley, arm. . ut prius. 

8 Joh. Roger, arm. 

9 Joh. Whiteheed. 

10 Rich. Darel, mil. 

Az. a lion rampant Arg. crowned O. 

11 Mau. Berkeley, mil. . ut prius. 

12 Edw. Berkeley . . . ut prius. 

13 Joh. Rogers. 

14 Carol. Bulkley. 

S. three bulls heads cabossed Arg. 

15 Tho. Troys, arm. 

16 Edw. Berkeley . . . ut prius. 

17 Will. Berkeley, arm. . ut prius. 

18 Edw. Hardgill. 

19 Joh. Cooke. 

20 Will. Uvedal .... ut prius. 

21 Edw. Berkeley . . ut prius. 

22 Joh. Brokes. 

RICHARD III. 

1 Rob. Pointz. 

Barry of six O. and V. a bend G. 

2 Joh. Roger. 

3 Rob. Carr, et 

Edw. Berkeley . . . ut prius. 



SHERIFFS. 31 



HENTY VII. 

Anno Name. Place. 

1 Joh. Cooke. 

2 Will. Uvedale . . . ut prius. 

3 Joh. Tichborne . . . ut prius. 

4 Joh. Pound, arm. 

5 Tho. Troys, arm. 

6 Edw. Berkeley, mil. . ut prius. 

7 Joh. Paulet, jun. . ut prius. 

8 Will. Uvedale, mil. . ut prius. 

9 Joh. Dudley, arm. 

10 Joh. Giffard, arm. 

11 Joh. Poundes, arm. 

12 Tho. Troys, arm. 

.13 Will. Sands, mil. . . ut prius. 

14 Dau. Owen, mil. 

15 Joh. Paulett, arm. . . ut prius. 

16 Joh. Philpot, arm. . . ut prius. 

1 7 Rich. Wallop, arm. . . ut prius. 

18 Joh. Waller, arm; . . Winch. Cast. 

S. three walnut leaves O. betwixt two bendlets Arg. 

19 Joh. Pound, mil. 

20 Joh. Puterham, mil. 

S. an helmet betwixt six crosslets in pale Arg. 

21 Rob. White, arm. 

Az. a fess betwixt three flowers-de-luces O. 

22 Joh. Lisle, mil. . . . ut prius. 

23 Joh. Leigh, mil. 

24 Idem. 

HENRY VIII. 

1 Rob. Wallop, arm. . . ut prius. 

2 Will. Sands, mil. . . ut prius. 

3 Will. Paulett .... ut prius. 

4 Will. Compton, mil. . Prierseen. 

Erm. on a bend S. three helmets proper. 

5 Ar. Plantagenet, mil. 

6 Rich. Norton, arm. . . ut prius. 

7 Rob. Wallop, arm. . . ut prius. 

8 Joh. Dawtree, mil. 

Az. four lozenges in fess Arg. 

9 Joh. Lisley, mil. . . ut prius. 

10 Will. Paulett, arm. . . ut prius. 

11 Joh. Kaleway. 

12 Will. Frost. 

13 Will. Giffard, mil. 

14 Will. Paulett, arm. . . ut prius. 

15 Rob. Wallop, arm. . . ut prius. 



32 WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

16 Pet. Philpot, arm. . . ut prius. 

17 Ant. Willoughby. 

S. a cross engrailed O. 

18 Tho. Lisley, mil, . . . ut prius. 

19 Will. Berkeley, mil. . . ut prius. 

20 Rich. Andrews, arm. 

21 Lion. Morres. 

22 Tho. Lisley, mil. . . . ut prius. 

23 Rich. Pexall, arm. 

24 Jo. Kaleway, mil. 

25 Jo. Paulett, arm. . . ut prius. 

26 Ant. Winsore, mil. 

27 Pet. Philpot, mil. . . ut prius. 

28 Will. Berkeley, mil. . ut prius. 

29 Tho. Lisley, mil. . . ut prius. 

30 Joh. Kingshall, arm. 

31 Ant. Winsore, mil. 

32 Rich. Andrews, arm. 

33 Joh. Kalevary, mil. 

34 Regi. Williams, arm. . OXFORDSHIRE. 

Az. an organ-pipe in bend sinister saltirewise, surmount 
ed on another dexter betwixt four crosses patee Arg. 
85 Joh. Kingsmil, arm. 

Arg. crosslettee fitchee a chevron Erm. betwixt three mill- 
royndes S. and a chief of the second. 

36 Will. Wacham, arm. 

37 Mich. Lister, mil. 

Erm. a fess S. three mullets O. 

38 Geor. Paulett, arm. . . ut prius. 

EDWARD VI. 

1 Nich. Tichborn . . . ut prius. 

2 Fran. Dawtrey, mil. . . ut prius. 

3 Mich. Lister, mil. . . ut prius. 

4 Nich. Pexall, mil. 

5 Joh, St. Lowe, mil. 

6 Joh. Norton, mil. . . ut prius. 

PHIL, et MAR. 

1 Nich. Tichborn . . . ut prius. 

1, 2 Joh. Brain. 

2, 3 Joh. White, arm. . . ut prius. 

3, 4 Joh. Norton, arm. . ut prius. 

4, 5 Nich. Pexall, mil. 

5, 6 Oliu. Wallop, mil. . ut prius. 

ELIZ. REG. 
I Tho. Pace, arm. 



SHERIFFS. 33. 

Anno Name. Place. 

2 Will. Pawlet, mil. . . ut prius. 

3 Job. Berkeley, mil. . . ut prius. 

4 Geor. Mills, arm. . . SUSSEX. 

Per fess Arg. and S. a pale counterchanged, three bears of 
the last saliant, muzzled O. 

5 Will. Kingsmil, arm. . ut prius. 

6 Rich. Norton, arm. . . ut prius. 

7 Rich. Pexall, mil. 

8 Mil. Bulkley, arm. . . ut prius. 

9 Rob. Oxenbridge. 

G. a lion rampant double queue O. within a border Az. 
charged with an entoir of escalops O. 

10 Hen. Seymor, mil. . . ut prius. 

11 Joh. Worsley, arm. . . Apledercomb. 

Arg. a chevron S. betwixt three Cornish choughs proper. 

12 Gilb. Wells, arm. 

13 Will. Waller, arm. . . ut prius. 

14 Will. Jepham, arm. 

15 Edw. White, arm. . . ut prius. 

16 Edw. Aboroe, arm. 

17 Rich. White, arm. . . ut prius. 

18 Walt. Sands, arm. . . ut prius. 

19 Jo. Thurnburgh, arm. 

Arg. fretty and a chief G. 

20 Hen. Giffard, arm. 

21 Ben. Tichburne, arm . ut prius. 

22 Ja. Paget, arm. 

23 Hen. Ughtread, arm. 

24 Rob. White, arm. . . ut prius. 

25 Tho. Dabridgcourt . . ut prius. 

26 Will. Wright, arm. 

27 Tho. West, arm. 

28 Fra. Relway, arm. 

29 Will. St. John, arm. 

Arg. on a chief G. two mullets pierced O. 

30 Rich. Norton, arm. . . ut prius. 

31 Edw. Goddard, arm. 

32 Rich. Paulett, arm. . . ut prius. 

33 Walt. Sands, mil. . . ut prius. 

34 Joh. Seymor, mil. . . ut prius. 

35 Nich. Mills, arm. . . ut prius. 

36 Will, de Uvedale, arm. ut prius. 

37 Rob. Oxenbridg . . . ut prius. 

38 Rich. Norton, arm. . . ut prius. 

39 Mar. Sty ward, arm. 

40 Joh. White, arm. . . Southwick. 

41 Will. Wallop, arm. . . ut prius. 

VOL. II. D 



34 WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE. 

Anna Name. Place. 

42 Fran. Palmes, arm. . . Oreton. 

G. three flower-de-luces Arg. ; a chief parted bar-ways 
lozengee counter-lozenge e Arg. and Az. ; all within a 
border of the first. 

43 Will. Kingsmil, mil. . ut prius. 

44 Ben. Tichbourn, mil. . ut prius. 
He. Wallop, mil. .- v * ut prius. 

JAC. REX. 

1 Hen. Wallop, mil. . . ut prius. 

2 Will. Abarrow, mil. 

3 Will, Dodington. 

4 Will. Oglander, mil. 

Az. a stork betwixt three crosses patee fitchee O . 

5 Dan. Norton, mil. . . ut prius. 

6 Joh. Knight, arm. 

7 Hen. Whitehead, mil. 

8 Tho. Stukeley, mil. . . DEVONSHIRE. 

Az. three pears O. 

9 Will. Sandys, mil. . . ut prius. 

10 Will. Kingsmil, mil. -. ut prius. 

11 Rich. Norton, mil. . . ut prius. 

12 Joh. Paulett, mil. . . ut prius. 

13 Edw. Richards, arm. 

14 Ric. Worseley, mil. bar. ut prius. 

15 Hen. Clarke, mil. 

16 Joh. Compton, arm. . ut prius. 

17 Tho. Neele, mil. 

18 Tho. Lambert. 

19 Geor. Philpot, mil. 

20 Steph. Knight, arm. 

21 Hen. Hook, arm. 

22 Arth. Willmot, arm. 

CAR. REG. 

1 Dan. Norton . . . . ut prius. 

2 Em. Gadder. 

3 Joh. Mills, bar. . . . ut prius. 

4 Fran. Douse, mil. 

O. a chevron lozengee Arg. and Az. betwixt three grey 
hounds currant S. 

5 Hen. Wallop, mil. . . ut prius, 

6 Tho. Cotcele. 

7 Rob. Pain, mil. 

8 Tho. Stewkly, mil. . . ut prius. 

9 Edw. Hooper, arm. 

10 Will. Beonsaw, mil, 

11 Ric. Whitehead, arm. 



FAREWELL WORTHIES SINCE FULLER S TIME. 35 

12 Jo. Button, arm. 

Erm. a fess G. 

13 Joh. Oglander, mil. . . ut prius. 

14 Jac. Hunt, arm. 

15 Rich. Mayor, arm. 

G. an anchor Arg. , on a chief O. three roses of the first. 
16 

17 Joh. Fielder, arm. 
18 
19 
20 
21 
22 Rich. Bishop, arm. 

THE FAREWELL. 

When some five years since I visited Winchester, it grieved 
me at the heart to behold that stately structure so far run to 
ruin ; yea, my thoughts then interpreted those sad schisms and 
gaping chinks, the heralds of its downfall, deeming with myself 
that I discovered (as physicians in our bodies do cadaverosam] 
faciem ruinosam therein. But it rejoiced me, when coming 
there this last year, to find it so well amended, by the sovereign 
medicine of gold or silver charitably applied by its good bishop.* 
I wish all cathedrals in England, sick of the same distemper, as 
quick and happy a recovery. 



WORTHIES OF HAMPSHIRE WHO HAVE FLOURISHED SINCE THE 

TIME OF FULLER. 

Dr. BURGESS, Bishop of Salisbury, a voluminous writer; born 

at Odiham 1756; died 1837. 
John CHAPMAM, divine and critic; born at Strathfieldsay 1704; 

died 1784. 
William COWARD, medical and metaphysical writer ; born at 

Winchester 1656 ; died between 1722 and 1725. 
William CROWE, divine, poet, and orator; born at Winchester; 

died 1829. 
William CURTIS, botanist, author of "Flora Londinensis " 

born at Alton 1746 ; died 1799. 
Charles DIBDIN, writer and musical composer of numerous sea 

songs ; born at Southampton about 1748 ; died 1814. 
Francis DOUCE, antiquary, virtuoso, and scholar; born 1761 ; 

died 1834. 
Lady Emma HAMILTON, companion of Nelson; born at Bere 

Forest; died 1816. 

* Dr. Brian Duppa. ED. 
D 2 



36 WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 

Jonas HAN WAY, merchant, philanthropist, traveller, and author; 
born at Portsmouth 1712; died 1786. 

Nathaniel HIGHMORE, physician, anatomist, and author ; born 
at Fordingbridge 1613 ; died 1684. 

Dr. Robert HOOKE, mathematician and natural philosopher, in 
ventor of the pendulum-spring in watches ; born at Fresh 
water, Isle of Wight, 1635; died 1702-3. 

Philip HUNTON, nonconformist divine, and political writer, who 
on his declaring that the sovereignty of England was in the 
three estates, was ordered to be burnt ; born at Andover ; 
died 1682. 

Giles JACOB, author of a Law Dictionary, some dramas and 
biographies; born at Romsey 1690 ; died 1744. 

Admiral Sir R. G. KEATS ; born at Chalton 1757 : died 1834. 

Robert LOWTH, Bishop of London, critic, antagonist of War- 
burton ; born at Buriton 1710; died 1787- 

Sir William PETTY, physician, writer on political economy, and 
practical philosopher; born at Romsey 1623; died 1687- 

Richard POCOCKE, Bishop of Meath, oriental traveller; born at 
Southampton 1704; died 1765. 

John POTTENGER, poet and translator; born at Winchester 
1647 5 died 1733. 

Dr. Joseph WARTON, divine, poet, critic, and translator; born 
at Basingstoke 1722 ; died 1800. 

Thomas WHARTON, brother of the preceding, divine, antiquary, 
poet-laureat, author of " History of English Poetry ;" born 
at Basingstoke 1728; died 1790. 

Isaac WATTS, nonconformist divine, author of " Psalms " and 
"Hymns," &c.; born at Southampton 1674; died 1748. 

Gilbert WHITE, writer on natural history, and author of the 
"History and Antiquities of Selborne;" born at Selborne 
1720 ; died 1793. 

Anne Countess of WINCHELSEA, ingenious poetess ; born at 
Sidmonton; died 1720. 

Dr. Edward YOUNG, divine and poet, author of " Night 
Thoughts," and " The Revenge ;" born at Upham 1681 ; died 
1765. 



* * 



-, Hampshire is destitute of a county historian. Tn 1793, however, the Rev- 
Richard Warner published Topographical Remarks relating to the south-western 
parts of Hampshire; and in 1795 the same author brought out Collections for the 
History of Hampshire, &c. In addition to these, a variety of works have been pub 
lished relative to the history and topography of Winchester, Southampton, Selborne, 
Isle of Wight, &c. ; the principal of which are the Histories of Winchester by Gale, 
Milner, Warton, and Britton. ED. 



HARTFORD OR HERTFORD-SHIRE. 



HERTFORDSHIRE is so called from Hertford, the chief town 
therein ; as Hartford, so termed from the Ford of Harts,* a hart 
couchant in the waters being the arms thereof ;t which con- 
vinceth me that HART not HERTfordshire, is the orthography of 
this county 4 It hath Essex on the east, Middlesex on the 
south, Buckinghamshire on the west, Bedford and Cambridge 
shire on the north thereof. It might be allowed a square of 
twenty miles, save that the angular insinuations of other counties 
prejudice the entireness thereof. I have been informed, from 
an ancient justice therein, that one cannot be so advantageously 
placed in any part of this shire, but that he may recover ano 
ther county within the riding of five miles. It is the garden of 
England for delight ; and men commonly say, that such who 
buy a house in Hertfordshire pay two years 3 purchase for the 
air thereof. 

It falls short in fruitfulness of Essex adjoining thereunto, to 
which it was also annexed under one sheriff (and one escheator, 
till after the reign of king Edward the Third) ; and painful Nor- 
den writes a bold truth : 

" For deep feedings, or sheep pastures, I take notice of few, 
and those especially about Knebworth. To speak of the soil, 
as indeed it is most generally, for my part I take it but a barren 
country in respect of some other shires." 

Indeed this foresty ground would willingly bear nothing so 
well as a crop of wood. But, seeing custom is another nature, 
it hath for many years been contented to bring forth good grain, 
persuaded thereunto by the industrious husbandman. Surely 
no county can show so fair a bunch of berries ; for so they term 
the fair habitations of gentlemen of remark, which are called 
places, courts, halls, and manors, in other shires. 

This county affording no peculiar commodity nor manufac 
ture, we may safely proceed to other observations, when first 
we have given the due commendation to the horses of this shire. 

* Camden s Britannia, in this county. f Speed, in his Map of this county. 

% The more modern and generally recognized orthography of HERTS is however 
adopted throughout this edition. ED. 

In his Description of Hertfordshire, p. 2. 



38 WORTHIES OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 

Their teams of horses (oft-times deservedly advanced from 
the cart to the coach) are kept in excellent equipage, much 
alike in colour and stature, fat and fair ; such is their care in 
dressing and well-feeding them. I could name the place 
and person (reader, be not offended with an innocent digres 
sion), who brought his servant with a warrant before a justice 
of peace for stealing his grain. The man brought his five 
horses tailed together along with him, alleging for himself, 
" that, if he were the thief, these were the receivers ; " and so 
escaped. 

THE BUILDINGS. 

THEOBALDS did carry away the credit, built by Sir William, 
beautified by Sir Robert Cecil his son, both lord treasurers of 
England. The last exchanged it (too wise to do it to his loss) 
with king James for Hatfield-house ; which king deceased 
therein, March 27, 1625. Yea, this house may be said to de 
cease about its grand climacterical, some sixty-three years from 
the finishing thereof, taken down to the ground (for the better 
partage among the soldiery) anno 1651 ; and, from the seat of 
a monarch, is now become a little commonwealth ; so many 
entire tenements, like splinters, have flown out of the materials 
thereof. Thus our fathers saw it built, we behold it unbuilt ; 
and whether our children shall see it rebuilt, he only knows 
who hath written, " there is a time to cast away stones, and a 
time to gather stones together.* 

HATFIELD-HOUSE was first the bishop s of Ely, then the 
king s, afterwards, by exchange, the earl s of Salisbury: for 
situation, building, contrivance, prospect, air, and all accommo 
dations, inferior to none in England. Within a little mile 
thereof lieth a place called the Vineyard, where Nature, by the 
midwifery of art, is delivered of much pleasure ; so that the 
reader must be a seer, before he can understand the perfection 
thereof. Had this place been in Grsecia, or nigh Rome, where 
the luxuriant fancies of the poets, being subject-bound, improve 
a tree into a grove, a grove into a forest, a brook into a river, 
and a pond into a lake ; I say, had this vineyard been there, it 
had disinherited Tempe of its honour; and hence the poets 
would have dated all their delights as from a little paradise, and 
staple-place of earthly pleasure. 

MEDICINAL WATERS. 

One hath lately been discovered near Barnet, in a common ; 
as generally sanative springs are found in such places, as if Na 
ture therein intimated her intention, designing them for public 

* Eccles. iii. 5. 



. MEDICINAL WATERS PROVERBS. 39 

profit, not private employment. It is conceived to run through 
veins of alum, by the taste thereof. It coagulateth milk, and 
the curd thereof is an excellent plaister for any green wounds, 
besides several other operations. 

But, as Alexander was wont to applaud Achilles, not as the 
most valiant, but the most fortunate of men, having Homer to 
trumpet forth his actions : so are these waters much advantaged 
with the vicinity of London, whose citizens proclaim the praise 
thereof. And indeed London in this kind is stately attended, 
having three medicinal waters within one day s journey thereof.* 
The catalogue of the cures done by this spring amounteth to a 
great number ; insomuch that there is hope, in process of time, 
the water rising here will repair the blood shed hard by, and 
save as many lives as were lost in the fatal battle at Barnet be 
twixt the two houses of York and Lancaster. 

PROVERBS. 

" Hertfordshire clubs and clouted shoon."] 

Some will wonder how this shire, lying so near to London, 
the staple of English civility, should be guilty of so much rus- 
ticalness. But the finest cloth must have a list, and the pure 
peasants are of as coarse a thread in this county as in any other 
place. Yet, though some may smile at their clownishness, let 
none laugh at their industry ; the rather because the high-shoon 
of the tenant pays for the Spanish-leather boots of the landlord. 

" Hertfordshire hedgehogs."] 

Plenty of hedgehogs are found in this high woodland county, 
where too often they suck the kine, though the dairy-maid 
conne them small thanks for sparing their pains in milking 
them. A creature always in his posture of defence, carrying a 
stand of pikes on his back, so that, if as well victualled as armed, 
he may hold out a siege against any equal opposition. If this 
proverb containeth any further reflection on the people in this 
county, as therein taxed for covetousness, and their constant 
nuddling on the earth, I will not so understand it, as hoping and 
believing this to be a false application. 

"Ware and Wadesmill are worth all London,"] 

This, I assure you, is a master-piece of the vulgar wits in this 
county, wherewith they endeavour to amuse travellers, as if 
Ware, a thoroughfare market, and Wadesmill (part of a village 
lying two miles north thereof) were so prodigiously rich as to 
countervail the wealth of London. The fallacy lieth in the ho- 
monymy of Ware, here not taken for that town so named, but 
appellatively for all vendible commodities. We will not dis 
compose the wit of this proverb, by cavilling that Weare is the 
proper name of that Town (so called anciently from the stop- 

Tunbridge, Epsom, Barnet. 



40 AVORTHIES OF HERTFORDSHIRE, 

pages which there obstruct the river), but leave it as we found 
it, and proceed. 

" Hertfordshire kindness."] 

This is generally taken in a good and grateful sense, for the 
mutual return of favours received ; it being [belike] observed 
that the people in this county at entertainments drink back to 
them who drank to them, parallel to the Latin proverbs, " Fri- 
cantem refrica ; Manus manum lavat ; Par est de merente bene, 
bene mereri." However, sometimes Hertfordshire kindness 
may prove Hertfordshire cruelty, and amount to no less than a 
monopoly, when this reciprocation of favours betwixt themselves 
is the exclusion of all others from partaking thereof. 

PRINCES. 

WILLIAM, second son of king Edward the Third and Phi- 
lippa his wife, took his Christian name from his grandfather, 
William earl of Renault, and his surname of Hatfield, from the 
place of his nativity in this county, where he was born the ninth 
of his father s reign, anno Domini 1335 ; and expired within few 
days after. So that what I find written on the late monument 
of a noble infant* may also serve for his epitaph : 

Vivus nil paleram fari, qitin mortuus infans 
Nunc loquor, ut mortis fis memor, atque vale. 

" Living I could not speak, now dead I tell 
Thy duty ; think of death ; and so farewell. 

It is uncertain where he was interred ; but most believe him bu 
ried at Westminster. 

EDMUND of LANGLEY, fifth son to king Edward the Third 
and queen Philippa, was so surnamed from King s Langley in 
this county, the place of his nativity. He was created earl of 
Cambridge in the thirty-sixth year of the reign of his father, and 
duke of York in the ninth year of his nephew king Richard the 
Second. He married Isabel, daughter and co-heir of Peter king 
of Castile ; and they lie buried at Langley together. He had 
(besides other children of both sexes) to his eldest son, Richard 
duke of York; and he died anno Domini 1402. 

EDMUND of HADDAM. Reader, I presume thee to be so 
much a gentleman, as in courtesy to allow him a prince, who 
was son to queen Katherine by Owen Theodore her second hus- 
bandj womb-brother to king Henry the Sixth, and father to king 
Henry the Seventh. That he was born in this county, one may 
well be confident, seeing there is no Haddam in any shire of 
England save Hertfordshire alone.f I confess therein three 
A-illages of that name ; but sure no less than Great Haddam was 

* On Charles Blunt, son to the earl of Newport, in St Martin s in the Fields. F. 
( As appeareth in " Villare Anglicanum. 1 



PRINCES SAINTS MARTYRS. . 41 

the place of so eminent a native. He was solemnly created 
earl of Richmond at Reading, in the thirty-first of king Henry 
the Sixth. 

Many good works no doubt he did when living, whose corpse 
when buried saved from destruction the fair cathedral of Saint 
David s. For his monument in the midst of the quire, saith my 
author* (as the prebendaries told him), spared their church 
from defacing in the days of king Henry the Eighth. I could 
wish all king Henry s nearest relations had after their decease 
been severally so disposed, preservatives from ruin and rapine, 
as the corpse of queen Catherine Dowager did, as some say, 
save the church of Peterburgh.f But this ill agreeth with that 
which Brooke reporteth,| viz. that this earl was buried in Car 
marthen ; and because Vincent, his professed adversary (finding 
fault with him always when any, sometimes when no cause), tak- 
eth no exception thereat, I the more rely on his testimony. Only 
it is possible that this earl, first entered in Carmarthen, might be 
afterwards, for the more eminence of sepulture, removed to Saint 
David s. He died anno Domini 1456. 

SAINTS. 

Saint ALBAN, though (as Saint Paul) a Roman by privilege 
but Briton by parentage, was born in this county (though many 
hundreds of years before Hertfordshire had its modern name 
and dimensions) in the city of Verulam, and was martyred for 
Christianity under Dioclesian, anno 303. The cause and man 
ner whereof (with the martyrdom of Saint Amphibalus hard by 
Rudborn) I have so largely related in my s< Ecclesiastical His 
tory," || that, as I will repeat nothing, I can add nothing of con 
sequence thereto ; except any will conceive this to be remark 
able ; that good liquorice groweth naturally out of the ruinous 
walls of Verulam, an old city (the mother of the new town of 
Saint Alban s), as a skilful eye-witness, antiquary, and zealous 
Protestant,^" hath observed. Had some Papist taken first notice 
hereof, he might probably have made it a miracle, and assign 
the sanctity of this place for the root of this liquorice. 

MARTYRS. 

It appeareth by the maps, that Africa lieth partly in the tor 
rid and partly in the temperate zone. Nor is the wonder any 
at all, considering the vastness thereof, extending itself through 
many degrees. More strange it is that this small county should 
be partly in a temperate, viz. the western part thereof subjected 
to the bishop of Lincoln, and partly in the torrid climate, 
namely the eastern moiety belonging to the diocese of London, 

* Speed, in the Description of Pembrokeshire, 
t Lord Herbert, in the Life of king Henry the Eighth. 

j In the Earl of Richmond. Acts xxii 25. || Cent. iv. p. 17,&c. 

f Norden, in his Description of this county, p. 29. 



42 WORTHIES OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 

which under Bonner was parched with persecution. Yet, not 
to make this monster worse than he was, though many in his 
jurisdiction were much molested, and though tradition points 
the very place in Bishop s Stortford where poor people were 
burnt at the stake ; yet my book of martyrs, or eyes, or both, be 
defective, wherein I cannot recover the name of any particular 
person. 

POPE. 

NICHOLAS, son to Robert Breakspear (a lay-brother in the 
abbey of St. Alban s) fetched his name from Breakspeare, a place 
in Middlesex,* but was born at Abbot s Langley, a town in this 
county, t When a youth, he was put to such servile work in 
St. Alban s Abbey, that his ingenious soul could not comport 
therewith. Suing to be admitted into that house, he received 
the repulse, which in fine proved no mishap, but a happy miss, 
unto him ; for, going over into France, he studied so hard and 
so happily at Paris, that for his worth he was preferred abbot of 
St. Rufus near Valentia, and afterward, by Pope Eugenius the 
Third, was made bishop of Alba nigh Rome. " Ad natalis soli 
memoriam," saith my author, that he who was refused to be 
Monachus Albanensis in England, should be Episcopus Albanensis 
in Italy. He was employed by the Pope for the conversion of 
the Norwegians ; and though Bale saith (he were not Bale if he 
were not bitter) " Anti-christiano charactere Norwegios sig- 
navit ;" yet his reducing them from Paganism to Christianity 
in the fundamentals was a worthy work, and deserves true com 
mendation. He was afterwards chosen Pope of Rome, by the 
name of Adrian the Fourth. There is a mystery more than I 
can fathom in the changing of his name, seeing his own font- 
name was a papal one ; yet he preferred rather to be Adrian 
the Fourth than Nicholas the Third. He held his place four 
years, eight months, and eight and twenty days : and, anno 
1158, as he was drinking, was choked with a fly ; which in the 
large territory of St. Peter s Patrimony had no place but his 
throat to get into. But, since a fly stopped his breath, fear 
.shall stop my mouth, not to make uncharitable conclusions from 
such casualties. 

CARDINALS. 

[REM.] Boso (confessed by all an Englishman J) is not 
placed in this county out of any certainty, but of pure charity, 
not knowing where elsewhere with any probability to dispose 
him. But, seeing he was nephew to the late named Nicholas, 
or Pope Adrian, we have some shadow and pretence to make 
him of the same county. This is sure, his uncle made him car- 

* Camden s Britannia, in Middlesex. 

Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent, ii, num. 90 ; and Pitseus, in anno 1159- 
Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis. 



CARDINALS PRELATES. 43 

dinal in the month of December 1155;* and he was a great 
change-church in Rome, being successively 1. Cardinal Deacon 
of Saints Cosma and Damian ; 2. Cardinal Priest of St. Crosses 
of Jerusalem : 3. Cardinal Priest of St. Prudentiana : 4. Car 
dinal Priest of Pastor*. 

He was more than instrumental in making Alexander the 
Third Pope with the suffrages of nineteen cardinals, who at last 
clearly carried it against his Anti-Pope Victor the Fourth. 
This Boso died anno Domini 1180. 

PRELATES. 

RICHARD DE WARE : for this is his true name, as appears 
in his epitaph,t though some (pretending his honour, but pre 
judicing the truth thereby) surname him Warren. He was 
made abbot of Westminster 1260; and twenty years after 
treasurer of England, under king Edward the First. This Ri 
chard going to Rome, brought thence certain workmen, and 
rich porphyry. And for the rest, hear my author :J 

(f By whom and whereof he made the rare pavement to be 
seen at Westminster, before the communion table, containing 
the discourse of the whole world, which is at this day most 
beautiful ; a thing of that singularity, curiousness, and rareness, 
that England hath not the like again." 

See, readers, what an enemy ignorance is to art. How often 
have I trampled on that pavement, so far from admiring, as 
not observing it ; and since, upon serious survey, it will not, 
in my eyes, answer this character of curiosity. However, I will 
not add malice to my ignorance (qualities which too often are 
companions) to disparage what 1 do not understand: but I 
take it, on the trust of others more skilful, for a master-piece of 
art. This Richard died on the second of December 1283, the 
twelfth of king Edward the First ; and lieth buried under the 
foresaid pavement. 

RALPH BALDOCK, so called from the place of his nativity (a 
mungrel Market) in this county, was bred in Merton College 
in Oxford : one not unlearned, and who wrote a " History 
of England," which Leland at London did once behold. King 
Edward the First much prized, and preferred him bishop of 
London. He gave two hundred pounds whilst living, and left 
more when dead, to repair the east part of St. Paul s, on the 
same token that, upon occasion of clearing the foundation, an 
incredible number of heads of oxen were found buried in the 
ground, alleged as an argument by some to prove that anciently 

* Godwin, in Catalogue of Cardinals, p. 164. 

f On his tomb, yet well to be seen in Westminster Abbey, on the north side of 
the tomb of Amer de Valens, earl of Pembroke. 

J J. Philipot, in his Treasures of England, collected anno Domini 1636, p. 19. 
Godwin, in his Bishops of London. 



44 WORTHIES OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 

a temple of Diana.* Such who object that heads of stags had 
been more proper for her, the goddess of the game, may first 
satisfy us, whether any creatures ferae, natures (as which they 
could not certainly compass at all seasons) were usually offered 
for sacrifices. This Ralph died July the 24th, 1313, being bu 
ried under a marble stone in St. Mary s Chapel in his cathedral. 

JOHN BARNET had his name and nativity from a market 
town in this county, sufficiently known by the road passing 
through it. He was first by the Pope preferred, 1361, to be 
bishop of Worcester, and afterwards was translated to Bath 
and Wells. Say not this was a retrograde motion, and Barnet 
degraded in point of profit by such a removal ; for though Wor 
cester is the better bishopric in our age, in those days Bath 
and Wells (before the revenues thereof were reformed under 
king Edward the Sixth) was the richer preferment. Hence he 
was translated to Ely, and for six years was lord treasurer of 
England. He died at Bishop s Hatfield,t June 7? 1373 ; and 
was buried there on the south side of the high altar, under a mo 
nument, now miserably defaced by some sacrilegious executioner, 
who hath beheaded the statue lying thereon. 

THOMAS RUDBURNE, no doubt, according to the fashion of 
those days, took his name from Rudburne, a village within 
four miles from St. Alban s. He was bred in Oxford, and proc 
tor thereof anno 1402, and chancellor 14204 An excellent 
scholar, and skilful mathematician ; of a meek and mild temper 
(though at one time a little tart against the Wicliffites) which pro 
cured him much love with great persons. He was warden of 
Merton College in Oxford, and built the tower over the College 
Gate. He wrote a " Chronicle of England ; " and was preferred 
bishop of St. David s. He flourished anno Domini 1419, 
though the date of his death be unknown. 

Reader, I cannot satisfy myself, that any bishop since the 
Reformation was a native of this county, and therefore proceed 

to another subject. 

STATESMEN. 

Sir EDWARD WATERHOUSE, Knight, was born at Helm- 
stedbury in this county, of an ancient and worshipful family, 
deriving their descent lineally from Sir Gilbert Waterhouse, of 
Kyrton in Low Lindsey, in the county of Lincoln, in the time 
of king Henry the Third. As for our Sir Edward, his parents 
were, John Waterhouse, Esquire, a man of much fidelity and 
sageness ; auditor many years to king Henry the Eighth, of 
whom he obtained (after a great entertainment for him in his 
house) the grant of a weekly market for the town of Helmsted : 

* Camden s Britannia, in Middlesex. 

f Bishop Godwin, in Bishops of Ely. J Idem, in Catalogue of St. David s. 

Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. vii. num. 53 ; and Pitseus, anno 1419. 



STATESMEN. 45 

and Margaret Turner, of the ancient house of Blunt s Hall in 
Suffolk, and Cannons in Hertfordshire. 

The king, at his departure, honoured the children of the said 
John Waterhouse, being brought before him, with his praise 
and encouragement ; gave a Benjamin s portion of dignation to 
this Edward, foretelling, by his royal augury, " That he would 
be the crown of them all, and a man of great honour and wis 
dom, fit for the service of princes." 

It pleased God afterwards to second the word of the king, so 
that the sprouts of his hopeful youth only pointed at the growth 
and greatness of his honourable age ; for, being but twelve years 
old, he went to Oxford, where for some years he glistered in 
the oratoric and poetic sphere, until he addicted himself to con 
versation, and observance of state affairs, wherein his great pro 
ficiency commended him to the favour of three principal pa 
trons. 

One was Walter Devereux, earl of Essex, who made him his 
bosom friend ; and the said earl, lying on his death-bed, took 
his leave of him with many kisses, " O my Ned," said he, 
" farewell : thou art the faithfullest and friendliest gentleman 
that ever I knew/ In testimony of his true affection to the 
dead father in his living son, this gentleman is thought to have 
penned that most judicious and elegant epistle (recorded in Ho- 
linshed s History, page 1266), and presented it to the young 
earl, conjuring him, by the cogent arguments of example and 
rule, to patrizate. 

His other patron was Sir Henry Sidney (so often lord deputy 
of Ireland), whereby he became incorporated into the familiarity 
of his son Sir Philip Sidney ; between whom and Sir Edward 
there was so great friendliness, that they were never better 
pleased than when in one another s companies, or when they cor 
responded each with other. And we find, after the death of that 
worthy knight, that he was a close-concerned mourner at his ob 
sequies, as appeareth at large in the printed representation of 
his funeral solemnity. 

His third patron was Sir John Perot, deputy also of Ireland, 
who so valued his counsel, that in State affairs he would do no 
thing without him. So great his employment betwixt state and 
state, that he crossed the seas thirty-seven times, until deserv 
edly at last he came into a port of honour, wherein he sundry 
years anchored, and found safe harbour ; for he received the 
honour of knighthood, was sworn of her majesty s privy council 
for Ireland, and chancellor of the Exchequer therein. 

Now his graceful sou], coursing about how to answer the 
queen s favour, laid itself wholly out in her service, wherein two 
of his actions are most remarkable. First, he was highly in 
strumental in modelling the kingdom of Ireland into shires as 
now they are ; shewing himself so great a lover of the polity 
under which he was born, that he advanced the compliance 



46 WORTHIES OF "HERTFORDSHIRE. 

therewith (as commendable and necessary) in the dominions 
annexed thereunto. 

His second service was, when many in that kingdom shrouded 
themselves from the laws, under the target of power, making 
force their tutelary saint, he set himself vigorously to suppress 
them. And when many of the privy council, terrified with the 
greatness of the earl of Desmond, durst not subscribe the instru 
ment wherein he was proclaimed traitor, Sir Edward, among 
some others, boldly signed the same (disavowing his and all 
treasons against his prince and country) ; and the council did 
the like, commanding the publication thereof. 

As to his private sphere, God blessed him, being but a third 
brother, above his other brethren. Now though he had three 
wives, the first a Villiers, the second a Spilman, the third the 
widow of Herlakenden, of Woodchurch in Kent, esquire ; and 
though he had so strong a brain and body, yet he lived and 
died s childless, inter-commoning therein with many Worthies, 
who are, according to ^Elius Spartianus, either improlific, or 
have children in genitorum vituperium et famarum Icesuram. 
God thus denying him the pleasure of posterity, he craved leave 
of the queen to retire himself, and fixed the residue of his life 
at Woodchurch in Kent, living there in great honour and repute 
as one who had no design to be popular, and not prudent : rich, 
and not honest ; great, and not good. 

He died, in the fifty-sixth year of his age, the 13th of October 
1591 ; and is buried at Woodchurch under a table marble monu 
ment, erected to his memory by his sorrowful lady surviving 
him. 

Reader, I doubt not but thou art sensible of the alteration 
and improvement of my language in this character ; owing both 
my intelligence and expressions unto Edward Waterhouse, now 
of Sion College, esquire, who, to revive the memory of his 
name-sake and great uncle, furnished me with these instructions. 

HENRY GARY, viscount of Falkland in Scotland, and son to 
Sir Edward Gary, was born at Aldnam in this county. He was 
a most accomplished gentleman, and complete courtier. By 
king James he was appointed lord deputy of Ireland, and well 
discharged his trust therein. But an unruly colt will fume and 
chafe (though neither switched nor spurred) merely because 
backed. The rebellious Irish will complain, only because kept 
in subjection, though with never so much lenity ; the occasion 
why some hard speeches were passed on his government. 
Some beginning to counterfeit his hand, he used to incorporate 
the year of his age in a knot flourished beneath his name, con 
cealing the day of his birth to himself. Thus by comparing the 
date of the month with his own birth-day (unknown to such 
forgers) he not only discovered many false writings which were 
past, but also deterred dishonest cheaters from attempting the 



SOLDIERS. 47 

like for the future. Being re-called into England, he lived ho 
nourably in this county, until he by a sad casualty brake his leg 
on a stand in Theobald s Park, and soon after died thereof. He 
married the sole daughter and heir of Sir Lawrence Tanfield, chief 
baron of the Exchequer, by whom he had a fair estate in Ox 
fordshire. His death happened anno Domini 1620 ; being father 
to the most accomplished statesman, Lucius, grandfather to the 
present Henry Lord Falkland, whose pregnant parts (now clari 
fied from juvenile extravagancies) perform much, and promise 
more useful service to this nation. 

SOLDIERS. 

[S. N.] Sir HENRY CARY, son to Sir William Gary and Mary 
Bollen his wife, was (wherever born) made by queen Elizabeth 
lord chamberlain, baron of Hunsdon in this county. A valiant 
man, and lover of men of their hands ; very choleric, but not 
malicious. Once one Mr. Colt chanced to meet him coming 
from Hunsdon to London, in the equipage of a lord of those 
days. The lord, on some former grudge, gave him a box on 
the ear. Colt presently returned the principal with interest ; 
and thereupon his servants, drawing their swords, swarmed 
about him. " You rogues," said the lord, " may not I and my 
neighbour change a blow but you must interpose ? }i Thus the 
quarrel was begun and ended in the same minute. 

It was merrily said, " that his Latin and his dissimulation 
were both alike, and that his custom in swearing, and obscenity 
in speech, made him seem a worse Christian than he was, and a 
better knight of the carpet than he could be."* He might have 
been with the queen whatsoever he would himself ; but would 
be no more than what he was, preferring enough above a feast 
in that nature. 

He hung at court on no man s sleeve, but stood on his own 
bottom till the time of his death, having a competent estate of 
his own given him by the queen ; who bestowed on him, in the 
first of her reign, Hunsdon-house in this county, with four thou 
sand pounds a year (according to the valuation in that age) in 
fair desmesnes, parks, and lands lying about it. Yet this was 
rather restitution than liberality in her majesty ; seeing he had 
spent as great an estate (left him by his father) in her service, 
or rather relief, during her persecution under queen Mary. 

This lord suppressed the first northern commotion (the sole 
reason why we have ranked him under the title of soldier) ; for 
which this letter of thanks was solemnly returned unto him : 



a 

(C 



By the QUEEN. 

: Right trusty and well-beloved cousin, we greet you well : 
and right glad we are that it hath pleased God to assist you in 

* Sir Robert Naunton, in his " Fragmenta Regalia." 



48 WORTHIES OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 

this your late service, against that cankered, subtle traitor Leo 
nard Dacres ; whose force being far greater in number than 
yours, we perceive you have overthrown, and how he thereupon 
was the first that fled, having (as it seemeth) a heart readier to 
shew his unloyal falsehood and malice, than to abide the fight. 
And though the best we could have desired was to have him 
taken, yet we thank God that he is in this sort overthrown, and 
forced to fly our realm, to his like company of rebels, whom no 
doubt God of his favourable justice will confound with such ends 
as are meet for them. We will not now by words express how 
inwardly glad we are that you have such success, whereby both 
your courage in such an unequal match, your faithfulness to 
wards us, and your wisdom is seen to the world ; this your act 
being the very first that ever was executed by fight in field, in 
our time, against any rebel ; but we mean also indeed, by just 
reward, to let the world see how much we esteem and can con 
sider such a service as this is ; and so we would have yourself 
also thank God heartily, as we doubt not but you do, from whom 
all victories do proceed, and comfort yourself with the assurance 
of our most favourable acceptation. We have also herewith 
sent our letter of thanks to Sir John Foster, and would have 
you namely thank our good faithful soldiers of Berwick, in 
whose worthy service we do repose no small trust. 26th of 
February 1569." 

Thus far was written by the secretary of state; but the 
ensuing postscript was all the queen s own hand ; the original 
being preserved by the right honourable Henry Earl of Mon- 
mouth (granchild to the Lord Hunsdon) ; by whose noble 
favour I carefully copied it forth as followeth : 

" I doubt much, my Harry, whether that the victory given me 
more joyed me, or that you were by God appointed the instru 
ment of my glory. And I assure you, for my country s good, the 
first might suffice ; but for my heart s contentation, the second 
more pleaseth me. It likes me not a little, that with a good 
testimony of your faith, there is seen a stout courage of your 
mind, that more trusted to the goodness of your quarrel, than 
to the weakness of your number. Well, I can say no more ; 
beatus est ille servus quern., cum Dominus venerit., inveniet facien- 
tem sua mandata. And that you may not think that you have 
done nothing for your profit (though you have done much for 
your honour) I intend to make this journey, somewhat to in 
crease your livelihood, that you may not say to yourself, Perdi- 
tur quodfactum est ingrato. 

" Your loving kinswoman, 

" ELIZABETH REGINA." 

Three times was this lord in election to be earl of Wiltshire, 



PHYSICIAN S. 49 

a title which in some sort belonged unto him in the right of 
Mary his mother ; but still some intervening accident retarded 
it. When he lay on his death-bed, the queen gave him a gra 
cious visit, causing his patent for the said earldom to be drawn, 
his robes to be made, and both to be laid down upon his bed ; 
but this lord (who could dissemble neither well or sick) 
" Madam," said he, " seeing you counted me not w r orthy of this 
honour whilst I was living, I count myself unworthy of it now 
I am dying." He departed this life anno Domini 1596; and 
lieth buried in a most magnificent monument in Westminster 
Abbey, being the direct ancestor to the earls of Dover and 
Monmouth. 

PHYSICIANS. 

JOHN GILES, or of St. Giles, was born at St. Alban s,* pro 
bably in the parish of St. Giles, long since (as some more in 
that town) demolished. He was bred beyond the seas, where 
he became so great a scholar, that he not only was physician in 
ordinary to Philip king of France, but also professor of that 
faculty in Paris and Montpelier. Then, waving the care of 
bodies, he took on him the cure of souls, and was made doctor 
of divinity. He afterwards became a Dominican, and was the 
first Englishman that ever entered into that order. In his old 
age he was famous for his divinity lectures read in Oxford. 

But which most persuades me to a venerable reception of his 
memory, is what I read of him in Matthew Paris,t how " Robert 
Grosthead, the pious and learned bishop of Lincoln, being sick 
on his death -bed, sent for this Mr. John Giles, learned in phy 
sic and divinity, that from him he might receive comfort both 
for body and soul/ How long this physician survived his 
patient (dying in October 1253) is to me unknown. 

JOHN DE GATESDEN was undoubtedly born in this county, 
wherein two villages the greater and less of that name, Such 
who except that they are written Gadesden will soon be satis 
fied in their sameness from those who know the sympathy 
betwixt T and D. He was bred in Merton College in Oxford, 
where he so profited in the study of physic, that a foreigner, J 
compiling a catalogue of men eminent in that faculty, acknow- 
ledgeth him a writer of high esteem therein. By one who hath 
made a list of learned men, he is styled Johannes Anglicus. I 
am informed that lately his books have been printed in Italy in 
a folio; no small honour (I assure you), seeing in physic the 
Italians account all Tramontane doctors but apothecaries in 
comparison of themselves. The first treatise in his book is 

* Bale et Pitseus, de Scriptoribus Angliae. f In anno 1253. 

J: Symphorianus Champerius, in his fifth Tract de Medic. Art. Scriptoribus. 
Matheeus Silvaticus, in Lexico. 
VOL. II. E 



50 WORTHIES OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 

termed " Rosa Anglica," the English Rose ;* and I doubt not 
but, as it is sweet in the title, so it is sovereign in the matter 
therein contained. This John flourished in the year of our 
Lord 1320. 

.WRITERS. 

ALEXANDER NEQUAM, or BAD in English, was born in St. 
Alban s. Many conceived themselves wondrous witty in mak 
ing jests (which indeed made themselves) on his surname ; 
whereof one eminent instance. 

Nequam had a mind to become a monk in Saint Albany s, the 
town of his nativity ; and thus laconically wrote for leave to the 
abbot thereof : 

" Si vis, veniam. Sin autem, tu autem. 

To whom the abbot returned : 

" Si bonus sis, venias. Si Nequam, nequaquam." 

Whereupon Nequam (to discompose such conceits for the 
future) altered the orthography of his name into Neckam. 

Another pass of wit there was (saith my authort) betwixt 
him and Philip Repington bishop of Lincoln, the latter sending 
the challenge : 

" Etniger et nequam, cum sis cognomine Nequam; 
Nigrior esse potes, nequior esse tieyuis. 

(Both black and bad, whilst Bad the name to thee ; 
Blacker thou may st, but worse thou canst not be.) 

To whom Nequam rejoined : 

" Plii nota foetoris, lippus malus omnibus horis : 
Phi malus et lippus, totus malus ergo Philippus. 

(.Stinks are branded with a Phi, lippus Latin for blear-eye : 
PA; and lippus bad as either ; then Philippus worse together.) 

But, by the leave of my learned author, this Nequam must 
be much younger than our Alexander, or that Philip much older 
than bishop Repington ; all agreeing that Alexander Nequam 
died 1227, under king Henry the Third, whereas Philip Reping 
ton was made bishop of Lincoln 1405, under king Henry the 
Fourth. J 

But, leaving Nequam s name, he is known to posterity by the 
title of Ingenii Miraculum, being an excellent philosopher, rhe 
torician, and poet; so true it is what Tully observeth, "Omnes 
artes, quse ad humanitatem pertinent, habent quoddam com 
mune vinculum, & quasi cognatione quadam inter "se continen- 
tur." Besides, he was a deep divine, as his books do evidence. 
He was canon of Exeter, and (upon what occasion I know not) 
came to be buried at Worcester, with this epitaph : 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. v. num. 7. et Pitseus, in anno 1320. 
j- Bishop Godwin, in Catalogue of the Bishops of Lincoln. 
\ Bale, and Pits, de Scriptoribus Angliae. 



WRITERS. 51 

.Eclipsim patitur sapient ia, sol sepelitur : 
Cui si par unus, minus esset flebile funus. 
Vir bene discretus, et in omni morefacetus, 
Dictns erat Nequam, vitam duxit tamen (equam. 

" Wisdom s eclips d, sky of the sun bereft, 
Yet less the loss if like alive were left. 
A man discreet, in manners debonair, 
Bad name, black face, but carriage good and fair." 

Others say he was buried at St. Alban s,* where he found 
repulse when living, but repose when dead. 

WILLIAM of WARE, born in that thoroughfare town, 
twenty miles from London, was a Franciscan, bred first in Ox 
ford, then in Paris. Now because some may slight the praise 
of Bale or Pits (as testes domesticos, Englishmen commending 
Englishmen) ; know that John Picus Mirandulaf highly extol- 
leth this de Ware, though miscalling him John, as ambitious to 
have him his namesake. He was instructor to John Duns 
Scotus.J 

" And if the scholar to such height did reach, 
Then what was he who did that scholar teach." 

He flourished under king Henry the Third, anno 1270; and is 
supposed to be buried in Paris." 

JOHN MANDEVILE, Knight, born at Saint Alban s in this 
county, heir to a fair estate. He applied himself first to the 
reading of the Scriptures, then to the study of physic (wherein 
he attained to great perfection) ; afterwards to travel for thirty- 
four years together ; and at last, like another Ulysses, return 
ing home, was quite grown out of knowledge of all his friends. 
He wrote a book of his own Itinerary through Africa, the east 
and north part of Asia, containing a variety of wonders. Now 
though far travellers are suspected in their relations to wander 
from the truth, yet all things improbable are not impossible ; 
and the reader s ignorance is sometimes all the writer s false 
hood. He used to complain of the church corruptions in his 
age, being wont to say, " Virtus cessat, Ecclesia calcatur, Clerus 
errat, Daemon regnat, Simonia dominatur." || 

He died anno Domini 1372 ; buried, say some, in the convent 
of the Williamites, at Liege in Germany ; which St. Alban s 
will not allow, claiming his burial as well as his birth, where a 
rhyming epitaph is appendant on a pillar near the supposed 
place of his interment. 

NICHOLAS GORHAM, a Dominican. We cannot blame the 
Frenchmen, if desirous to gain so great a scholar to be their 

* Weever s Funeral Monuments, in Hertfordshire. f In suo Heptuplo. 

J Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iv. p. 323, and Pits, p. 349. 
Weever s Funeral Monuments, in this county. 
| Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis. 

E 2 



52 WORTHIES OT? HERTFORDSHIRE. 

countryman ; nor must the French blame us, if loath to lose 
what is duly and truly our own. 

Three things are pretended to countenance his French nati 
vity : 1 . His long living (and dying at last) in that land : 2. 
The preferment he got there, being confessor to the king of 
France, which may seem a place of too much privacy to be con 
ferred on a foreigner : 3. The great credit and esteem which his 
writings have gained in France, where his manuscript works are 
extant in many libraries. 

These pleas are over-balanced with the like number to at 
test his English extraction. Ham, in Gorham, is notoriously 
known for no French, but a Saxon ordinary termination of a 
town, 2. Gorham was a village nigh St. Alban s in this 
county ; where Gorharnbury (the manor-house thereof) is extant 
at this day. The register of Merton College in Oxford men- 
tioneth the admission of this Nicholas Gorham a student in 
their foundation. Add to all these, that learned Leland and 
other English antiquaries have always challenged him for their 
countryman. 

Indeed he was an Englishman Francised, who, going over 
into France a young man, spent the rest of his life there. 
Many and learned are his books, having commented almost on 
all the Scriptures ; and give me leave to say, no hands have 
fewer spots of pitch upon them who touched the superstition of 
that age he lived in. He died and was buried at Paris, about 
the year of our Lord 1400. I will only add, that since we have 
had another Nicholas of Gorham (though not by his birth, by 
his habitation) as famous for a statesman as the former for a 
divine. I mean Sir Nicholas Bacon, whose dwelling was at 
Gorharnbury aforesaid. 

HUGH LEGAT, born in this county;* bred in Oxford; at 
last became a Benedictine in the abbey of St. Alban s. Being 
much delighted in meditation, he wholly employed himself in 
commentary on, 1. John of Hanwell sf books of Lamentation. 
2. Boetius of Consolation. Thus his soul may be presumed 
well poised betwixt plumbum et plumam, a weight and a wing, to 
suppress and support it. He flourished anno 1400. 

JOHN WHETAMSTEAD was born at Wheathampstead in this 
county ; not so famous for the production of the best wheat, 
whence the place hath its name, as for this John Whetamstead, 
who hath his name from that place. He was bred at the priory 
at Tynernouth in Northumberland (a long stride, I assure you, 
from the place of his birth) ; to which he bequeathed a chalice 
of gold.J He was afterwards abbot of St. Alban s, and the sixth 
of that Christian name. 

* Pits, de Jllustribus Angliaa Scriptoribus, anno 1400. 

} See WRITERS, in Middlesex. \ Weever s Funeral Monuments, p. 569. 



WRITERS. 53 

Vast were his expences in the adorning of that church, exceed- 
ng six thousand pounds. 

Two criticisms in his buildings I cannot omit ;* one, that on 
the north side of his church (which he enlightened with new 
windows) he set up the statues of those heathen philosophers 
who had testified of the Incarnation of Christ. 2. That in a 
little chapel he set up the similitudes of all the saints whose 
Christian names were John, with his own picture, and this 
prayer in a distich, that, though unworthy, he might have a 
place with his namesakes in heaven. 

Besides, he procured from Humfrey the good duke of Glou 
cester, his great Maecenas, who was buried at St. Alban s, a 
suit of vestments worth three thousand marks, and the manor 
of Pembroke in South Wales. Many are the books which he 
left to posterity, being counted no fewer than fourscore and odd 
several Treatises ; and died about the year 1440. 

[AMP.] JOHN BOURCHIER, baron Berners, was son of 
John Bourehier baron Berners, in the right of Margery his 
wife, daughter of Sir Richard Berners of West Horsley in Sur 
rey, f Yet had that honourable family of the Berners an 
ancient habitation at Tharfield in this county ;f which with 
some probability insinuateth the birth of this noble gentleman 
therein. 

He was a martial man, well seen in all military discipline ; and 
when Michael Joseph, the blacksmith, led the Cornish rebels 
against king Henry the Seventh, anno 1496, no man did better 
service than this lord in their suppression, for which he was 
made chief governor of Calais. 

Having there gotten a repose, who formerly had been a far 
traveller and great linguist, he translated many books out of 
French, Spanish, and Italian, besides some of his own making. 
I behold his as the second (accounting the lord Tiptoft the first) 
noble hand, which, since the decay of learning, took a pen 
therein, to be author of a book. He died on the 16th of March 
1532 ; and is buried in the great church in Calais. And I have 
read that the estate of the Berners is by an heir-general 
descended to the Knyvets of Ashwelthorp in Norfolk. || 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

ROGER HUTCHINSON was born in this county ;^[ and bred 
fellow of St. John s College in Cambridge, where he was very 
familiar with Mr. Roger Ascham, who disdained intimacy with 
dunces. And as this is enough to speak him scholar ; so it is a 

Manuscript in Sir Robert Cotton s library. 

Mills, in his Catalogue of Honour, p. 855. 
\. Camden s Britannia, in Hertfordshire. 

; Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. vii. num. 1, and Pits, in anno 1532, 
II Mills s Catalogue, p. 256. 
If Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. ix. num. 95. 



54 WORTHIES OK HERTFORDSHIRE. 

sufficient evidence to an intelligent jury, to prove him Protes 
tant, that, being commended by Bale for writing a book in 
English of " The Image of God," he is Avholly omitted by John 
Pits, He flourished anno Domini 1550 ; and probably died in 
the happy reign of Edward the Sixth, before the following 
persecution. 

THOMAS CARTWRIGHT was born in this county,* and was 
admitted in Saint John s College in Cambridge., anno 1550. In 
the reign of queen Mary he left the university (being probably 
one of those scholars which, as Mr. Fox obseryeth, went (alias 
were driven) away from this college all at one time, and betook 
himself to the sendee of a counsellor. Here he got some skill 
in the common law, which enabled him afterwards to fence the 
better for himself by the advantage thereof. 

In the reign of queen Elizabeth, he returned to Cambridge, 
was chosen fellow, first of St. John s, then of Trinity ; how after 
wards he was made Margaret Professor, ousted thereof for his 
non-conformity, travelled beyond seas, returned home, became 
the champion of the presbyterian party, is largely related in our 
i( Ecclesiastical History." 

Only I will add, that the Non-conformists, not agreeing which 
of them (where there is much choice, there is no choice) should 
answer Dr. Whitgift s " Reply," I read that Mr. Cartwright at 
last was chosen by lot to undertake it.t It seems the brethren 
concluded it of high and holy concernment; otherwise I know 
what Mr. Cartwright hath written of the appeal to lots : " Non 
nisi in rebus gravioribus, et alicujus magni momenti ad sortis 
judicium recurrendum, maxime, cum per sortem Deus ipse in 
judicio sedeat."J 

One saith " for riches he sought them not," and another 
saith, " that he died rich ;" || and I believe both say true, God 
sometimes making wealth to find them who seek not for it, see 
ing many and great were his benefactors. He died and was 
buried in Warwick, where he was master of the hospital, anno 
1603. 

DANIEL, DIKE was born at Hempstead in this county, where 
his father was a minister silenced for his non-conformity. He 

was bred in College in Cambridge, and became 

afterwards a profitable labourer in God s vineyard. Witness 
(besides his sermons) his worthy books, whereof that is the 
masterpiece which treateth of " The Deceitfulness of Man s 
Heart ;" wherein he lays down directions for the discovery 
thereof; as also how, in other cases, one may be acquainted with 
his own condition, seeing many men lose themselves in the 

* Samuel Clarke, in his Lives of English Divines, p. 367. \ Idem, p. 399. 

I Idem, in his " Comment on Proverbs," 1633. Idem, p. 272. 

|| Sir George Paul, in his " Life of Whitgift, p. 54. 



WRITERS. 55 

labyrinths of their own hearts : so much is the terra incognita 
therein. This book he designed for his pious patron John Lord 
Harrington,, " But., alas ! when the child was come to the birth, 
there was no strength to bring forth ! " Before the book was 
fully finished, the author thereof followed his honourable patron 
into a better world ; so that his surviving brother (of whom im 
mediately) set it forth. And to the Lady Lucy Countess of 
Bedford, the lord s sister, the same was dedicated. A book 
which will be owned for a truth, whilst men have any badness ; 
and will be honoured for a treasure, whilst men have any good 
ness in them. This worthy man died about the year 1614. 

JEREMIAH DIKE, his younger brother, was bred in Sidney 
College in Cambridge ; beneficed at Epping in Essex ; one of a 
cheerful spirit. And know, reader, that an ounce of mirth, with 
the same degree of grace, will serve God farther than a pound 
of sadness. He had also a gracious heart, and was very profit 
able in his ministry. He was a father to some good books of 
his own ; and a guardian to those of his brother, whose posthume 
works he set forth. He was one " peaceable in Israel," and 
though no zealot in the practice of ceremonies, quietly submitted 
to use them. He lived and died piously ; being buried in his 
own parish church, anno Domini 1620. 

ARTHUR CAPEL, Esquire, of Hadham in this tounty, was 
by king Charles the First created a baron, 1641. He served the 
king with more valour and fidelity than success, during the civil 
wars, in the Marches of Wales. After the surrender of Ox 
ford, he retired to his own house in this shire, and was in some 
sort well cured of the (so then reputed) disease of loyalty, when 
he fell into a relapse by going to Colchester, which cost him his 
life, being beheaded in the Palace-yard in Westminster, 1648. 

In his lifetime he wrote a book of meditation (published since 
his death) wherein much judicious piety may be discovered. 
His mortified mind was familiar with afflictions, which made him 
to appear with such Christian resolution on the scaffold, where 
he seemed rather to fright death, than to be frighted with it. 
Hence one not unhappily alluding to his arms (a lion rampant 
in a field Gules betwixt three crosses) thus expressetu himself : 

Thus lion-like, Capel undaunted stood : 
Beset with crosses in a field of blood." 

A learned doctor in physic (present at the opening and em 
balming of him and duke Hambleton) delivered it at a public 
lecture, that the Lord CapePs was the least heart (whilst the 
duke s was the greatest) he ever beheld. Which also is very 
proportionable to the observation in philosophy, that the spirits 
contracted in a lesser model are the cause of the greater 
courage. 

God hath since been the husband to his widow (who, for her 



56 WORTHIES OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 

goodness, may be a pattern to her sex) and father to his chil 
dren, whom not so much their birth, beauty, and portions, as 
virtues, married to the best bloods and estates in the land, even 
when the Royalists were at the lowest condition. 

EDWARD SYMONDS, born at Cottered in this county, was 
bred in Peter-house in Cambridge, where he commenced Mas 
ter of Arts, afterwards minister of Little Rayne in Essex ; a 
man strict in his life and profitable in his preaching, wherein he 
had a plain and piercing faculty. Being sequestered from his 
living for siding with the king; with David, 1 Sam. xxiii. 13. 
he went "wheresoever he could go," to Worcester, Exeter, 
Barnstaple, France, and lastly returned to London. He wrote 
a book " In Vindication of King Charles ; and was instru 
mental in setting forth his majesty s book called EIKM*/ Bao-iXiK-r/ . 
Pens were brandished betwixt him and Mr. Stephen Marshal, 
though all was fair betwixt them before his death ; for Mr. 
Symonds visited him, lying in his bed at Westminster ; told 
him, " had I taken you for a wild beast, I would not have roused 
you in your den." He was very conscientious in discharging 
his calling. Being once requested by me to preach for me, he 
excused himself for want of competent warning ; and w r hen I 
pleaded, "that mine, being a country parish, would be well 
pleased with his performance ; " "I can," saith he, " content 
them, but not mine own conscience, to preach with so little 
preparation." He died about anno Domini 1649 ; and was 
buried in St. Peter s, Paul s Wharf, in London. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

NICHOLAS Dixox, parson for thirty years together of Ches- 
hunt in this county. He was also clerk of the Pipe Office, 
belonging to the Exchequer. See we here why the officers of 
that place (as also those of the Chancery) were called Clerks, 
because priests in orders with cure of souls did formerly dis 
charge those offices. He was also under-treasurer, and at last 
baron of the Exchequer, when, partly by his own bounty, and 
partly by .collection of others, he built the parish church of 
Cheshunt (and that, I assure you, is a very fair one) with a 
chancel to the Virgin Mary. Now for an affidavit for the 
proof hereof, the reader is referred to this his epitaph inscribed 
in Cheshunt chancel, more to be respected for the truth than 
wit thereof : 

" O miserere, Jesu, famuli Dixon Nicolai, 

Cui brevis hospitium tumulus prsestat satis amplum. 
Istud qui fanum ter denis rexerat annis, 
Ad cnjus fabricam bursas proprias, alienas, 
Solvit et allexit : quo crevit in ardua templum. 
Pulchrum cancellum, tibi dat, pia Virgo, novellum : 
Dum laudaris eo, famulo suffragia prasstes. 
Clericus hie Pipae, Sub-thesaurarius, inde 
Baro Scaccarii, se juste gessit ubique 



WRITERS. 54 

Pacem pauperibus dans,* cedat divitis iras. 

Larga manus relevat quos pauperies fera pressit. 

Anno Milleno C. quater, bis bis deca Christ! 

Octavo moriens, mutans terrestria coelis, 

Octobris luce ter dena transit ad astra. 
Auxiliare prece qui perlegis hsec Nicholao, 
Ut sibi cum sanctis prsestetur vita perennis. 

The word rexerat doth intimate that Cheshunt was then a 
rectory, or parsonage, though since impropriated and made a 
vicarage. What a deal of do does this pitiful poet make with 
words at length, and figures, and Latin, and Greek, to describe 
the date of his death ! which (if I understand his signs aright) 
was October the thirtieth, one thousand four hundred and forty 
eight. 

Sir RALPH JOSCELINE, sou to Jefferie Josceline, was born at 
Sabndgeworth in this county, f bred a draper in London, whereof 
he was twice mayor. Once, anno 1464 ; and ere the end of that 
year, was made knight of the Bath by king Edward the Fourth, 
in the field, saith my author.J But seeing there is more of the 
carpet than of the camp in that order, it is more probable what 
another writes, that he was invested knight of the Bath at the 
coronation of Elizabeth, queen to the king aforesaid. He was 
mayor again anno 1476, when he corrected the bakers and 
victuallers of the city, and by his diligence were the walls thereof 
repaired; walls, now a mere compliment, serving more for 
the dividing than the defending of the city : so that as [some 
foreign cities cannot be seen for the walls, here the walls cannot 
be seen for the city. Sad were the case of London, if not bet 
ter secured with bones within, than stones about it. This Sir 
Ralph died October the 25th, anno 1478, and was buried in the 
church of Sabridgeworth. 

JOHN INCEXT, son of Robert Incent and Catherine his wife, 
was born at Berkhampstead in this county. || He was afterwards 
a doctor of law, and advanced, anno 1543 (when Richard Samp 
son was preferred bishop of Coventry and Lichfield) dean of 
St. Paul s. This John, probably invited by the example of 
another John (his mediate^ predecessor) Collet, dean of PauPs, 
founded a fair free-school in the town of his nativity, procuring 
it confirmed by act of Parliament, allowing the master twenty 
the usher ten pounds per annum. He died, as I collect, in the 
beginning of the reign of king Edward the Sixth. 

Sir THOMAS WHITE, son to Thomas White, was born at 

Were not that orthography, pseudography, which altereth the original copy, I 
had written cedat with an st, for so it ought to be written. F. 
t Stow s Survey of London, p. 569. J Idem, ibidem. 

Weever s Funeral Monuments, p. 550. 
|| Camden s Britannia, in Hertfordshire. 



58 WORTHIES OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 

Rixmansworth in this county, and afterwards bred a merchant- 
tailor in London, of which city he was lord mayor anno Domini 
1553. He first built Gloucester-hall, and afterwards built and 
endowed St. John s College in Oxford, the seminary of many 
flourishing wits. He bestowed also a vast sum of money on 
several corporations, to be employed circularly for the benefit of 
the poor freemen therein. I once intended to have presented 
the reader with an exact particular of his benefactions, till sea 
sonably I reversed my resolution on this consideration : amongst 
the Jews it was an injury for one removed further off in blood 
to do the office of a kinsman to the childless widow, until the 
next of kin had first disclaimed his interest therein ; as in the 
case of Ruth most plainly appeared.* A son, I am sure is 
nearer than a nephew ; therefore it is a more proper perform 
ance for one bred in Oxford to collect the particulars of his 
bounty (who, whithersoever he went, left the finger-marks of 
his charity behind him,) than for me, distanced a degree farther 
off by my education in another university. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

RICHARD HALE, Esquire, was born at Cudicot in this county, 
and bred a grocer in the city of London ; where his industrious 
endeavours were so blessed, that in a little time he got a great 
estate. Wherefore, in expression of his gratitude to God, the 
giver thereof, he founded a very fair school, allowing forty 
pounds a year to the master thereof, at Hertford in this county; 
a place very prudently chosen for such a purpose. First, be 
cause the prime town in his native shire : secondly, great the 
want of a school in that populous place : and, lastly, because 
most pure the air thereof ; so that parents need not fear their 
children s loss of health for the gaining of learning. He died 
anno Domini 16.., whose wealthy family do still flourish with 
worth and worship at King s Walden in this county. 

EDWARD BASH, Knight, was born at Aldnam in this county? 
in the manor-house then belonging to the noble family of the 
Careys ; whereof Frances his mother, aftenvards married toGeorge 
earl of Rutland, was descended. He was a hearty gentleman, 
and a good English housekeeper, keeping a full table, with solid 
dishes on it, and welcome guests about it. And one may term 
him a valiant man, who durst be hospitable in these dangerous 
days. Whilst living, he was a benefactor to Peter-house in 
Cambridge, wherein he was bred a fellow-commoner ; and at his 
death bequeathed more thereunto, the particulars whereof I have 
not yet attained. He gave also twenty pounds per annum for 
the maintenance of a schoolmaster at Stanstead in this county, 
where he had his constant habitation. He died anno Domini 1605. 

* Ruth iv. 4. 



MEMORABLE PERSONS LORD MAYORS. 59 

Many other benefactors this shire hath of late afforded ; and 
amongst them one born in Cheshunt parish, who founded a 
school and alms-house therein, whom we leave to be reckoned up 
by the topographists of this county. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

THOMAS WATERHOUSE, Priest, was born at Helmstead in this 
county. His will acquainteth us with the wardrobe of men of 
his order towards the end of the reign of queen Mary : 

" In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost, Amen. I, Thomas Waterhouse, priest of the Catholic 
faith, whole of body, and of good and perfect remembrance, do 
make and ordain my last Will and Testament, the 25th day of 
May, in the year of our Lord 1557 3 in manner and form follow 
ing : First, I bequeath my soul to God Almighty the Father of 
heaven, my Creator ; and unto Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, 
my Redeemer. And I will my body to be buried in the chancel 
within the parish church of Hemelhempsted, near to the place 
where my mother lieth. I bequeath to the parish church of 
Quainton my vestment of crimson satin. I bequeath to the 
parish church of Great Barkemsted my vestment of crimson 
velvet. I bequeath to the parish church of Great Hemelsted 
my stole and fanon set with pearl. I bequeath to my cousin John 
Waterhouse, the queen s servant, my standing cup of silver and 
gilt, with the cover. I bequeath to my servant Thomas Ashton, 
ten pound in money, which I promised him. I bequeath to my 
priest, Sir Thomas Barker, my black gown faced with taffata, 
&c. And I ordain and make my brother John Waterhouse, and 
my cousin Richard Combe, gentlemen, mine executor. These 
being witnesses, &c."* 

Such as jeer him for his gallantry (as one of the church 
triumphant) may remember that besides his worshipful extrac 
tion (which might the better countenance his clothes) these were 
not garments for his wearing, but vestments for his officiating; 
and, according to the opinion of that age, nothing could be too 
costly in that kind. 

LORD MAYORS. 

1. William Cromar, son of John Cromar, of Aldenham, Mercer, 

1423. 

2. Ralph Joceline, son of Geffrey Joceline, Draper, 1464. 

3. William Martin, son of Walter Martin, of Sabridgworth, 

Skinner, 1492. 

4. Ralph Ostrich, son of Geffrey Ostrich, of Hitchin, Fishmon 

ger, 1493. 



Probatum fuit hoc Testamentum coram William Cooke, Leg. Doct. in Cur. 
Prerog. 17 Julii 1557 F. 



60 WORTHIES OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 

5. Thomas Bradbury, son of Will. Bradbury, of Braughin, Mer 

cer, 1509. 

6. Thomas White, son of Thomas White, of Rickmansworth, 

Merchant Taylor, 1553. 

7. John Wats, son of Thomas Wats, of Buntmgford, i 

worker, 1606. 

Reader, this is one of the twelve shires whose Gentry we: 
not returned by the Commissioners, the twelfth of Henry the 
Sixth, into the Tower. 

SHERIFFS. 

This county had the same with Essex until the ninth year of 
queen Elizabeth, when the distinction between the two Shires 
did begin, and these following peculiar to this county. 

QUEEN ELIZ. 

Anno Name and Arms. Place. 

9 G. Penruddock, arm. 

G. a limb of a tree, raguled and trunked in bend Arg, 

10 Row. Litton, arm. . Kneb worth. 

Erm. on a chief indented Az, three crowns O. 

11 Hen. Conisby, arm. . South Minis. 

G. three coneys seiant within a border engrailed Arg. 

12 Will.Dods, arm. 

13 Edw. Bash, arm. . Stansted. 

Per chevron Arg. and G. ; in chief two martlets S. ; in 
base a saltire, &c. 

14 George Horsey, arm. . Digswel. 

Az. three horses heads couped O. bridled Arg. 

15 T. Leventhorp . . . Shingle-hall. 

Arg. a bend gobonee S. and G. cotised of the first. 

16 Hen. Cocke, arm. . . Brocksborn. 

Quarterly, G. and Arg. 

17 Johan. Gill, arm. . . Widjel. 

S. two chevrons Arg. each with three mullets of the nrst ; 
on a canton O. a lion passant G. 

18 Tho. Bowles, arm. . . Wallingtoii. 

Arg. on a chevron betwixt three boars heads couped S. as 
many scalops O. within a border V. bezantee. 

19 Edw. Verney, arm. 

Az. on a cross Arg. five mullets G. 

20 Phil. Butler, arm. . . Watton. 

(Vide the last of queen Elizabeth.) 

21 Char. Morison, arm. . Cashiobery. 

O. on a chief G. three chaplets of the first. 

22 Tho. Dockwray, arm. . Putridge. 

S. a chevron engrailed Arg. between three plates cha ed 
with as many pallets G. 



SHERIFFS. 



61 



Anno Name. Place. 

23 Job. Brocket, arm. . Broket Hall. 

O. a cross patoncee S. 

24 Hen. Conisby, arm. . ut prius. 

25 Fran. Haydon, arm. . Grove. 

Quarterly, Arg. and Az. a cross engrailed counter- 
changed. 

26 Edw. Bash, arm. . . ut prius. 

27 Hen. Capel, arm. . . Hadham. 

G. a lion rampant betwixt three crosses botonee-fitchee 
O. 

28 Ed. Pawleter, arm. . . Wimondly. 

Arg. a bend voided S. 

29 T. Leventhorp, arm. . ut prius. 
Tho. Sadler, arm. . Standon. 

O. a lion rampant partie per fess Az. and G. 

30 Joh. Cutts, mil. . . . CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 

Arg. on a bend engrailed S. three plates. 

3 1 Edw. Verney, arm. . . ut prius. 

32 Wai. Mildmay, arm. . Pessobury. 

Arg. three lions rampant Az. 

33 Th. Hanchet, arm. . . Hinkworth. 

S. three dexter hands Arg. 

34 Arth. Capel, arm. . . ut prius. 

35 J. Leventhorp, arm. . ut prius. 

36 Row. Litton, arm. . . ut prius. 

37 Th. Sadler, arm. . . . ut prius. 

38 R. Coningsby, arm. . ut prius. 

39 Rich. Spencer, arm. . . Offley. 

Quarterly Arg. and G. a fret O. ; on a bend S. three 
escalops of the first. 

40 T. Popeblunt, arm. 

Barry formy nebuly of six, O. and S. 

41 Rob. Chester, arm. . . Cakenhatch. 

Per Pale Arg. and S. a chevron betwixt three rams heads 
erased within a border engrailed roundelly, all counter- 
changed. 

42 Tho. Hanchet, arm. . . ut prius. 

43 Tho. Bowles, arm. . . ut prius. 

44 Edw. Denny, mil. . . ESSEX. 

G. a saltire Arg. betwixt twelve crosses O. 
H. Boteler, mil. . . Hatfield-woodhall. 

G. a fess cheeky Arg. and S. between six cross-croslets O. 

KING JAMES. 

1 Hen. Boteler .... ut prius. 

2 Geo. Purient, arm. . . Digswel. 

G. three crescents Arg. 



62 WORTHIES OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

3 Tho. Dockwray, arm. . utprius. 

4 Wa. Mildmay/arm. et . utprius. 
Leon. Hide, mil. . . Albury. 

O. a chevron between three lozenges Az. ; on a chief 
an eagle displayed of the first, 

5 J. Leventhorp, arm. . ut prim. 

6 Nich. Trot, arm. . . . Quickset. 

7 Radu. Sadler, arm. . . ut prius. 

8 Ric. Anderson, mil. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three crosses formee S. 

9 Rob. Boteler, mil. . . ut prius. 

10 Johan. Wild, arm. 

11 W. Franckland, arm. . 

Arg. a chevron S. betwixt three torteaux, charged with 
as many scalops of the first. 

12 Tho. Dacres", mil. et . . Cheshunt. 
Tho. Dacres, arm. 

13 God. Pemberton, mil. Hartfordbury. 

Arg. a chevron between three buckets S. 
L. Pemberton, arm. 

14 Tho. Newes, arm. 

S. two pallets Arg. a canton Erm. 

15 Edw. Brisco .... Abbot s Langley. 

Arg. three greyhounds in pale S. 

16 Tho. Read, arm. . . Broket-hall. 

G. a saltire betwixt four garbs O. 

17 Nich. Hide, arm. . . ut prius. 

18 R. Pemberton, arm. . . ut prius. 

19 Will. Hale, arm. . . King s Wolden. 

Az. a chevron counterbattily O. 

20 Edw. Newport, arm. . Pelham. 

21 Cl. Skudamore, mil. 

G. three stirrups leathered and buckled O. 

22 Rich. Sidley, arm. . . Digswell. 

Az. a fess wavy betwixt three goats heads erased Arg. 
attired O. 

KING CHARLES. 

1 Will. Litton, mil. . . utprius. 

2 Joha. Jenning, mil. . . Hollywell. 

Az. on a fess G. three bezants. 

3 Tho. Hide, bar. . . . ut prius. 

4 Edw. Gardner, arm. . Thunderidge. 

Per pale O. and G. on a fess two mascles between three 
hinds passant counter changed. 

5 Will. Hoe, arm. . . . Hoe. 

Quarterly S. and Arg. 



SHERIFFS. 63 

Anno Name. Place. 

6 Jolian. Boteler, mil. . ut prius. 

7 Rich. Hale, arm. . . ut prius. 

8 Hen. Cogshil, arm. 

9 Will Plomer, arm. . . RadweU. 

V. a chevron betwixt three lions heads erased O. 
billeted G. 

10 W. Prestly, arm. 

S. a chevron Arg. charged with three anchors of the field, 
betwixt as many lions O. each issuant out of a tower of 
the second. 

1 1 Will. Leaman, arm. . . North-hall. 

Az. a fess betwixt three dolphins Arg. 

12 Rad. Freeman, arm. . Aspden. 

Az. three lozenges Arg. 

13 T. Coningsby, arm. . . ut prius. 

14 Tho. Hewet, arm. < . Pesso-bury. 

S. a chevron counter battellee betwixt three owls Arg. 

15 Johan. Gore, arm. . . Gilsden. 

G. a fess betwixt three croslets fitchy O. 

16 Artho Pulter . . . . ut prius. 
17 

18 Joh. Gerrard, bar. 

19 Joh. Gerrard, bar. 

20 Cha. Nodes, arm. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

14. GEORGE HORSEY. The Horseys had a free and compe 
tent estate at Digswell in this county, where they had lived long 
in good esteem. It happened that Sir John Horsey, of Clifton, 
in the county of Dorset (whose two daughters were married into 
the families of Mohune and Arnold) wanting an heir-male, set 
tled the main of his estate, which was very great, on Ralph, the 
son of this George Horsey. 

His father advised this Ralph his son (newly augmented with 
the addition of so great an estate), that in case he should have 
any occasion to sell lands, not to part with his Hertfordshire in 
heritance, which had continued so long in the family, but rather 
to make sale of some Dorsetshire land. 

But the young gentleman, ill-advised, sold this his patrimony 
first of all ; for which the rest of his means probably prospered 
no whit the better ; not one foot thereof remaining at this day 
to his posterity. I write not this to grieve any of his surviving 
relations, but to instruct all in obedience to their parent s law 
ful commands. 

16. HENRY COCK, Arm. He was afterward knighted, and 
was cofferer to queen Elizabeth and king James, who lay at his 



64 WORTHIES OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 

house May the second, at his first coming out of Scotland to 
London, where so abundant entertainment, "that no man, of 
what condition soever, but had what his appetite desired," 
which made the king, at his departure, heartily " thank the good 
knight for his great expences/ f This Sir Henry s daughter 
was married to the Lord Delaware. 

44, EDWARD DENNY, Knight, was high sheriff of this 
county when king James, coming from Scotland, passed through 
it. He was attended on by one hundred and forty men, suit 
ably apparelled and well mounted, with whom he tendered 
his service to the king, presenting also his majesty w r ith a gal 
lant horse, rich saddle, and furniture. But, before the year of 
shrievalty was expired, king James created him baron Denny 
of Waltham, and another supplied the remainder thereof. 

KING JAMES. 

2. GEORGE PURIENT, Arm. Let me do my best devoir and 
last office to preserve the memory of an ancient and now expired 
family. Digswell, I presume, was the place of their living, be 
cause of their interments therein, whereof this most remark 
able: 

" Hie jacent Johannes Purient, Armiger pro Corpore Regis 
Richardi Secundi, et Penerarius ejusdem Regis; et Armiger 
etiam Regis Henrici Quarti ; et Armiger etiam Regis Henrici 
Quinti ; et Magister Equitum Johanne filie Regis Navarre, et 

Regine Anglie, qui obiit : ; et Johanna uxor ejus, 

quondam capitalis Domicilla que obiit xxiv 

anno Domini M.cccc.xv." 

Surely he was a man of merit ; being penon or ensign-bearer 
to one, esquire of the body to three successive kings; and 
master of the horse to one of their queens, to whom his wife was 
chief lady of honour. 

THOMAS DACRES, Miles, et mort. He was one of the three 
sheriffs in this county, who, within the compass of ten years, died 
in their shrievalties, as by this catalogue may appear. He was 
grandchild unto Robert Dacres, esquire, one of the privy coun 
cil to king Henry the Eighth. 

THOMAS HOE. This most ancient name (which formerly had 
barons thereof) is now expiring in the male line ; this gentle- 

man^s sole daughter being married unto Kete, of 

London. 

THOMAS CONISBY, Armiger. When one told him, that his po- 



Stow s Coronicle, p. 822. f Ibid, in 10 Jacobi. 



WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 65 







tent adversary had prevailed to make him sheriff, " I will not, 
said he, " keep a man the more, or a dog the fewer, on that ac 
count." 

THE FAREWELL. 

I am sorry to hear that the fair font of solid brass, brought 
out of Scotland, and bestowed by Sir Richard Lea on the abbey 
church in St. Alban s, is lately taken away : I could almost wish 
that the plunderers fingers had found it as hot as it was when 
first forged, that so these thieves, with their fault, might have 
received the deserved punishment thereof, 

Had it been returned to the place whence it was taken, to 
serve for the same use, the matter had not been so much ; but, 
by an usual alchymy, this brass is since turned into silver. But 
let us not so much condole the late losing of the font, as con 
gratulate our still keeping of baptism; which, if some men 
might have their minds, should utterly be denied to all infants. 
I wish all infants to be christened in this county and elsewhere, 
though not so fair a font, fair water, and, which is the best of 
all, the full concurrence of God s Spirit, effectually to complete 
the sacrament unto them. 



WORTHIES OF HERTFORDSHIRE WHO HAVE FLOURISHED SINCE 

THE TIME OF FULLER. 

Sir Henry CHAUNCEY, sergeant-at-law, historian of the county ; 

born at Yardleybury ; died 1 700. 
Isaac CHAUNCY, non- conformist divine and author; born at 

Ware; died 1712. 

Robert CLUTTERBUCK, historian of the county; born at Wat 
ford 1772; died 1831. 
William COWPER, poet; born at Berkhampstead 1731; died 

1800. 
John BUNCOMBE, poet and divine, author of "The Femineid," 

&c.; born at Stocks 1730; died 1786. 
William BUNCOMBE, dramatic writer and translator of Horace ; 

father of the preceding; born at Stocks 1690; died 1769. 
John GUYSE, author of Paraphrase on the New Testament i 

born at Hertford 1680. 
Robert HILL, a learned tailor, compared by Spence to Mag- 

liabechi; born at Miswell 1699; died 1/77- 
William KENRICK, miscellaneous writer ; born near Watford ; 

died 1779. 
John SHUTE, first Viscount Barrington, statesman and author ; 

born at Theobalds 1678 ; died 1754. 

VOL. II. F 



66 WORTHIES OF HERTFORDSHIRE. 

John WALKER, philologist, author of " Pronouncing Diction 
ary ;" born at Barnet 1732 ; died 1807- 

William WILLYMOT, divine and civilian; born at Royston ; 
died 1737. 



%* Hertfordshire can boast of three county historians, vi/. Sir Henry Chauncey 
(1700), N. Salmon (1728), and Robert Clutterbuck (1827). Accounts of St. Al- 
ban s Abbey have also appeared, dated 1795, and 1813 ; the former from the pen 
of the Rev. P. Newcome ED. 



HEREFORDSHIRE. 



HEREFORDSHIRE hath Worcestershire and Shropshire on 
the north, Gloucestershire on the east, Monmouthshire on the 
south, Brecknock and Radnor-shires on the west. In form it is 
almost circular, being from north to south (measured to the best 
improvement) thirty-five miles, though from east to west not 
altogether so much. 

There cannot be given a more effectual evidence of the 
healthful air in this shire, than the vigorous vivacity of the inha 
bitants therein ; many aged folk, which in other countries are 
properties of the chimneys, or confined to their beds, are here 
found in the field as able (if willing) to work. The ingenious 
sergeant Hoskin gave an entertainment to king James, and pro 
vided ten aged people to dance the Moorish before him ; all of 
them making up more than a thousand years ; so that what was 
wanting in one was supplied in another ; a nest of nesters not 
to be found in another place. 

This county doth share as deep as any in the alphabet of our 
English commodities, though exceeding in W. for Wood, Wheat, 
Wool, and Water. Besides, this shire better answereth (as to 
the sound thereof) the name of Pomerania than the dukedom of 
Germany so called, being a continued orchard of apple-trees, 
whereof much cider is made, of the use whereof we have treated 
before.* 

There is a tract in this county called Gylden Vale ; and if any 
demand how much gold is to be found therein, know that 
even as much as in Chrusaroas, or Golden-stream, the river of 
Damascus, so called from the yellowness of their water ; as this 
vale is so named either because gilded with flowers in the 
spring, or because being the best of moulds, as gold is of 
metals. 

Here I cannot but commend Master Camden s cautious 
commendation of this county : " Secunda fertilitatis laude inter 
Angliae provincias acquiescere, haud facile est contenta ;" (it is 
not willingly content to be accounted the second shire for matter 
of fruitfulness.) 

But the aforesaid author in his whole book never expresseth 

* In the COMMODITIES of Gloucestershire. 
F 2 



68 WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 

which is the first, too politic to adjudge so invidious a pre 
eminence. And thus keeping the uppermost seat empty, such 
competitor counties are allowed leave to put in their several 
claims which pretend to the prime place of fertility. 

Reader, I am sorry that having not hitherto seen the cathe 
dral of Hereford, I must be silent about the buildings in this 
county. 

NATURAL COMMODITIES. 
WOOL. 

Such as are ignorant of the qualities thereof may inform 
themselves therein from the common proverbs : 1. "White 
as wool ; " a Scripture phrase,* though there be thereof black 
by nature. 2. " Soft as wool ; " and therefore our judges anci 
ently in the Parliament-house sat on wool-packs, as well for the 
easier repose of their age, as to mind them to maintain this sta 
ple commodity in its legal privileges. 3. " As warm as wool." 
And one said merrily, " Wooll must needs be warm, as consist 
ing all of double letters." 

Our English garments from head to foot were formerly made 
thereof, till the beginning of the reign of king Henry the 
Eighth, when velvet caps becoming fashionable for persons of 
prime quality, discomposed the proverb, " If his cap be made of 
wool," as formerly comprising all conditions of people how high 
and haughty soever. 

Great the plenty of wool in this county ; and greater God s 
goodness, that generally our northern lands are well stored 
therewith. The friarf rather descanted than commented, and 
his interpretation not so much false, as improper for the place ; 
" Dat nivem sicut lanam," (He giveth snow like wool;)J that 
where most snow falls, those places (if habitable) are best 
provided with wool. It is well his wanton wit went no further, 
"He scattered his hoar frost like ashes;" freezing countries 
affording most fuel to burn ; so careful is Providence in dis 
pensing necessaries to mankind. As for the wool in this 
county, it is best known, to the honour thereof, by the name of 
Lempster Ore, being absolutely the finest in this county, and 
indeed in all England, equalling, if not exceeding, the Apulian 
or Tarentine in the south of Italy, though it cost not so much 
charge and curiosity in the careful keeping thereof : for good 
authors 1 1 inform us, that there the shepherds put in effect a 
fleece over their fleece, using to clothe their sheep with skins, 
to preserve their wool from the injury of earth, bushes, and 
weather. How well this requiteth their cost, I know not, but 
am sure no such trouble is used on our sheep here. 

* Revelations i. 14. f Cited by H. Stevens, in his Defence of Herodotus. 

J Psalm cxlvii. 16. Muscovy, Poland, Norway. 

|| Var. de re rustic. 2 cap. 2. Columell. l. 7. c. 4. 



NATURAL COMMODITIES WONDERS. 69 



SALMON. 

A dainty and wholesome fish,, and a double riddle in Nature : 
first, for its invisible feeding, no man alive having ever found 
any meat in the maw thereof. Secondly, for its strange leaping 
(or flying rather), so that some will have them termed salmons, 
a saliendo. Being both bow and arrow, it will shoot itself out 
of the water an incredible height and length. I might add the 
admirable growth thereof, if true what is confidently affirmed, 
that it increaseth from a spawn to a full-grown fish within the 
compass of a year. Plenty of these in this county, though not 
in such abundance as in Scotland, where servants (they say) 
indent with their masters, nor to be fed therewith above thrice 
a week. 

Some will say, why salmons in Herefordshire, which are com 
mon in other counties ? It is answered, in other counties, suit 
ably with the buck, they are seasonable only in summer; 
whereas here, with buck and doe, they are in season all the year 
long. This county may say : 

Salmo non testate novus, necfrigore desit. 

" Salmon in summer is not rare ; 
In winter, I of them do share. 1 

For the river of Wye affords brumal salmons, fat and sound, 
when they are sick and spent in other places. 

THE WONDERS. 

There is a little fountain called Bone-well nigh Richard s Cas 
tle in this county, the water whereof is always full of bones of 
little fishes,* or as others conceive, of little frogs ; seeing, it 
seems, such their smallness they are hardly to be distinguished* 
It addeth to the wonder, because this spring can never be emp 
tied of them, but as fast as some are drawn out, others instantly 
succeed them. 

To this permanent, let us add two transient, Wonders,"on the 
credit of excellent authors.t When a battle was fought in this 
county, anno Domini 1461, betwixt Jasper earl of Pembroke 
and James Butler earl of Ormond on the one side, and king 
Edward the Fourth of the. other, three suns appeared together 
in the firmament. 

Such a triple sun (one real, two representations) were seen in 
heaven a little before the Roman empire was rent betwixt three 
competitors, Galba, Otho, and Vitellius ; as also since, when the 
kingdom of Hungary was cantoned betwixt John Vayvode, 
Ferdinand afterwards emperor, and the Great Turk ; such me 
teors being sometimes prognostics of so many several pretenders 
at once to the same sovereignty. 

Inquiring into the natural cause hereof, we find it to be no- 

* Camden s Britannia, in Herefordshire. 

f Quoted by Speed in his Maps of England, in Herefordshire. F. 



70 WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 

thing else but the image of the sun represented in an equal, 
smooth, thick, and watery cloud, not opposite thereunto (for 
then it would make the rainbow) ; nor under the sun (for then 
it would make those circles called crowns or garlands) ; but on 
one or either side thereof, in a competent or moderate distance : 
for, if it be too far off, then the beams will be too feeble to be 
reflected ; if too near, the sun will disperse it ; but in such a 
middle distance, wherein many suns may appear, as a man s face 
is expressed in all pieces of a broken glass. 

To this wonder add a second, of Marcley Hill, which, anno 
Domini 1575, roused itself, as it were, out of its sleep.* Yea, 
in some sort it might seem to be in labour for three days to 
gether, shaking and roaring all that while, f to the great terror 
of all that heard or beheld it. It threw down all things that 
opposed it, and removed itself into a higher place. The 
best use we can make of such accidents is, to fear and not 
fear thereat, with a reverential awe to God, no servile dread of 
the thing itself : " Therefore we will not fear, though the earth 
be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the 
midst of the sea."J 

PROVERBS. 

Blessed is the eye, 
That is betwixt Severn and Wye."] 

Some will justly question the truth hereof. True it is, the 
eyes of those inhabitants are entertained with a pleasant pros 
pect; yet such as is equalled by other places. But it seems this 
is a prophetical promise of safety to such that live secured within 
those great rivers, as if privileged from martial impressions. 
But, alas ! civil war is a vagrant, and will trace all corners, ex 
cept they be surrounded with Gyges ring. Surely some eyes in 
that place, besides the sweet rivers of Severn and Wye running 
by them, have had salt waters flowing from them, since the 
beginning of our late distractions. 
" Lemster bread, and Weabley ale."] 

It seems both these are best in their kinds, though good in 
other places of the land. Thus, though Palestine was universally 
termed "a land of wheat," || yet the Spirit of God takes signal 
notice of M the wheat of Minnith and Pannag,"1[ as finer than 
the rest. Yet is there wheat in England, which jostleth for 
pureness with that of Weabley ; viz. what groweth about Hes- 
ton m Middlesex, yielding so fine flour, that for a long time the 
manchet for the kings of England was made thereof;** except 
any will say it is prized the more for the vicinity to London. 

* Camden s Elizabeth, anno 1575. 

This kind of earthquake is called Brasmatias. F. 

Psalm xlvi. 2. Camden s Britannia, in Herefordshire 

Deut. viii. 8. ^J Ezek. xxvii. 17. 

** Camden s Britannia, in Middlesex. 



WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 71 



SAINTS. 

ETHELBERT was king of the East Angles, and went to Offa 
king of Mercia to treat of the marriage with his daughter ; but 
queen Quendred, wife to Offa, more ambitious of her own un 
lawful than fc her daughter s lawful advancement, practised his 
death at a village now called Sutton Wallis, four miles from 
Hereford. His corpse was afterwards removed by Milfred (a 
petit prince of that country) to Hereford, where he obtained the 
reputation of a saint and martyr. His suffering happened anno 
Domini 793. 

THOMAS CANTILUPE was of honourable extraction, whose 
father William lord Cantilupe had two fair habitations, Aber- 
gavenny castle in Monmouth, and Haringworth in Northamp 
tonshire, which, by an heir-general of that family, afterwards de 
scended to lord Zouch. He was bred in Oxford (whereof at 
last he became chancellor), and was preferred bishop of Hereford. 
A charitable man may believe him a person of holy life and 
great learning ; but no wise man will credit what Walsingham 
writes of him, " That he was never guilty of any mortal sin." 
Going to (others say returning from) Rome, to assert his church 
from the encroachment of Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury, 
he died at a city in Tuscany, where his flesh was taken off his 
corpse and buried, whilst his bones were sent for reliques into 
England, and enshrined at Hereford. Now, though different 
dates be assigned of his death, I adhere to Bishop Godwin, 
noting his dissolution 1282. 

He was afterwards canonized by Pope John the Twenty- 
second ; and no fewer than four hundred twenty-five miracles 
are registered in that church, reported to be wrought at his 
tomb.* I say just four hundred and twenty-five, which falls out 
fewer by five-and-twenty than "the prophets of Baal/ 5 and 
more by five-and-twenty " than the prophets of the groves/ f 
in a middle number betwixt both, and all of them, I believe, 
honest and true alike. Yea, it is recorded in his legend, " that 
by his prayers were raised from death to life threescore several 
persons, one-and-twenty lepers healed, and three-and-twenty 
blind and dumb men to have received their sight and speech."! 

No wonder then what Mr. Camden observeth, that, in pro 
cess of time, " parum abfuit quin pietatis opinione regio martyri 
Ethelberto prseluxerit ;" (he lacked but little to eclipse the lustre 
of Ethelbert, the royal saint and martyr) ; formerly buried (as 
is aforesaid) in the same cathedral. Indeed it is given to super 
stition always to be fondest of the youngest saint. But long 
since king Henry the Eighth hath put a period to all emula 
tions betwixt their memories. 

" English Martyrology, October 2, f 1 Kings xviii. 19. 

J English Martyrology, ut prius. Britannia, in Herefordshire. J 



72 WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 

The bishops of Hereford so highly honoured this Thomas, 
that (waiving their ancient arms) they assumed the paternal 
coat of Cantilupe (viz. Gules, three leopards 3 heads inverted, each 
with a flower-de-luce in his mouth Or) to be successively the arms 
of their see. This Cantilupe lived the latest of any Englishman 
who was canonized ; so that blind zeal may even close her sto 
mach, and make up her mouth with the sweetmeats of his 

memory. 

MARTYRS. 

Sir JOHN (son to Sir Thomas) OLDCASTLE was a native of 
this county, whereof he was sheriff in the seventh of Henry the 
Fourth; lord Cobham in the right of his wife; a right valiant 
man, but great follower of Wickliffe, so that he lost his life on 
that account. 

As his body was hanged and burnt in an unusual posture at 
Tyburn, so his memory hath ever since been in a strange sus 
pense betwixt malefactor and martyr; Papists charging him 
with treason against king Henry the Fifth, and heading an army 
of more than ten thousand men, though it wanted nine thousand 
nine hundred ninety and nine thereof, so far as it appears solidly 
proved. 

But it hath ever been the practice of the devil and his instru 
ments, angry with God s servants for their religion, to accuse 
them for sedition ; perceiving princes generally more jealous 
of their own honour than God s glory, and most careful to cut 
off such as oppose their power or persons. Thus Christ was 
accused for disloyalty to Csesar ; and St. Paul, for raising of 
tumults ; though they (as it is plain in the text*) either raised 
themselves, or were raised by the Pharisees and Sadducees, PauFs 
professed enemies. But I have so worn out the nib of my pen 
in my " Church History " about clearing the innocency of this 
worthy knight, that I have nothing to add new thereunto. 

Marian martyrs this diocese affordeth none ; such the mode 
ration of Robert Parfew, the bishop thereof. 

CARDINALS. 

ADAM DE EASTON. We were at a great loss, had we but his 
bare surname to direct us to the place of his nativity, seeing 
scarcely one county in England, which hath not one or more 
Eastons or Eatons t (the same in -effect) therein. But thanks 
be to our author, J who hath fixed his birth (though but with an 
ut videtur) in this shire. 

Pretenders to skill in Palmistry would persuade ns, that such, 
the table in whose hands is narrow beneath and broad above, 
are marked out for poverty in their youth, and plenty in their 

* Acts xxiii. 6. 

j Three Eatons there are in this county. 

{ Bishop Godwin, in his Catalogue of Cardinals, p. 173, out of whom this is col 
lected. F. 



PROVERBS PRELATES. 

old age. I will not say, such the signature in the hands 
of our Adam; but sure I am, such his success. Mean 
his birth, homely his breeding, hard his fare, till by his 
industry he was advanced doctor of divinity in Oxford, where 
in he became a great scholar, skilled in Greek and Hebrew (rare 
accomplishments in that age), and was very dexterous in all 
civil negotiations. He was afterwards made cardinal, with the 
title of St. Cicily, by Pope Urban, against whom Clement the 
Seventh was elected and erected by others. 

Fierce the fight between bears and boars ; but far fiercer 
betwixt two an ti- Popes, giving no quarter to the opposite party, 
if brought into their power. Urban, suspecting treachery in 
some of his cardinals, imprisoned seven of them at once, and 
putting five of them into sacks, sank them into the sea. Oh, 
most barbarous urbanity \ Our Adam, being the sixth, hardly 
escaped with life, and may be said in some sort put into a sack 
(though of a larger size) ; I mean, a strait dungeon, where he 
remained half-starved for five years together, till the death of 
Pope Urban. But Pope Boniface, his successor, restored him 
to all his honours and dignities, and sent him over into England 
to king Richard the Second with most ample commendation. 

Returning to Rome, he lived there in all plenty and pomp ; 
and died September the 17th, 1397. Pity it is so good a scho 
lar should have so barbarous an epitaph, scarce worth our trans 
lation : 

Artibus is>le puter famosus in omnibus Adam, 
Tlieologus summus, Cardi-^e-nalis erat. 

Anglia cui palriam, titulum dedit ista Beatce 
Ceciliceque marsque supremo, polum. 

" Adam a famous father in arts all, 
He was a deep divine, Cardi-and-nall, 
Whom England bred, St. Cicilie hath given 
His title death at last gave heaven." 

He was interred, when dead, in the church of St. Cicily, 
which intituled him when alive ; though no happiness, an ho 
nour which no other Englishman (to my observation) of his 
order ever enjoyed. 

PRELATES. 

[S. N.] JOHN BRETON, alias BRITTON, Doctor of the 
Laws. He meriteth a high place in this catalogue ; and yet I 
am at a perfect loss where to fix his nativity, and therefore am 
forced to my last refuge, as the marginal character doth confess. 

He was a famous lawyer, living in the reign of king Edward 
the First ; at whose commandment, and by whose authority he 
wrote a learned book of "The Laws of England," the tenor 
whereof runneth in the king s name, as if it had been penned by 
himself. Take one instance thereof: 

"Chapter XI T. We will, that all those who are fourteen 
years old, shall make oath that they shall be sufficient and loyal 



74 WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 

unto us, and that they will be neither felons, nor assenting to 
felons : and We will that all be/ &c. 

This style will seem nothing strange to those who have read 
Justinian s " Institutions/ which the Emperor assumed unto 
himself, though composed by others. 

It is no small argument of the excellency of this book, that, 
notwithstanding the great variation of our laws since his time, 
his work still is in great and general repute. Thus a good face 
conquereth the disadvantage of old and unfashionable clothes. 
He was preferred bishop of Hereford in the reign of king Henry 
the Third. And although there be some difference betwixt 
authors about the time wherein he lived and died (some assign 
a later date), I confide in Bishop Godwin* (his successor in the 
same see) computing his death to happen May 12, in the third 
of king Edward the First, anno 1275. 

ADAM de ORLTON was born in the city of Hereford. Pro 
ceeding doctor of law, he became afterwards bishop in the 
place of his nativity.f This is he so infamous in history for 
cutting off the life of king Edward the Second with his riddling 
unpointed answer : " Edwardum regem occidere nolite timere 
bonum est ;" (to kill king Edward you need not to fear it is 
good.) 

It is hard to say, which of these two were the original, and 
which the translation ; it being equally probable that the English 
was Latined, as that the Latin was Englished, by such authors 
as relate this transaction. 

This mindeth me of a meaner passage " Sic canibus catulos," 
which, to refresh both the reader and myself, I shall here insert. 

A schoolmaster, being shut out of his school at Christmas, 
came to composition with his scholars, and thus subscribed the 
articles tendered unto him : 

Jiqua est conditio non nego quod petitis. 

But, being re-admitted into his house, he called all his scho 
lars to account for their rebellion. They plead themselves 
secured by the act of oblivion he had signed. He calls for the 
original ; and perusing it, thus pointed it : 

yEqua est conditio ? non : nego quod petitis. 

Thus power, in all ages, will take the privilege to construe 
its own acts to its own advantage. 

But to return to De Orlton ; he made much bustling in the 
land, passing through the bishoprics of Worcester and Winches 
ter : and died at last, not much lamented, July 18, 1345. 

JOHN GRANDESSON was born at Ashperton in this county ;J 
a person remarkable on several accounts : 1 . For his High 

* In his Catalogue of the Bishops of Hereford. 

f Godwin, in his Catalogue of Bishops. 

I Idem, in his Catalogue of the Bishops of Exeter. 



PRELATES. 75 

Birth; his father Gilbert being a baron, and his mother Sybill 
co-heir to the Lord Tregose. 2. Great Learning ; being a good 
writer of that age, though Bale saith of him that he was " orator 
animosior quam facundior." 3. High Preferment ; attaining to 
be bishop of Exeter. 4, Vivacity; sitting bishop of his see 
two and forty years. 5. Stout Stomach; resisting Mepham 
archbishop of Canterbury, vi et armis, when he came to visit his 
diocese. 6. Costly Buildings ; arching the beautiful roof of his 
cathedral ; building and endowing a rich college of Saint Mary 
Ottery. 

He was the better enabled to do these and other great bene 
factions by persuading all the secular clergy in his diocese to 
make him sole heir to their estates. He died July 15, anno 
Domini 1369. 

THOMAS BRADWARDINE, archbishop of Canterbury. (See 
him more properly in SUSSEX.) 

RICHARD CLIFFORD bishop of London. (See him more con 
veniently in KENT.) 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

MILES SMITH, D.D. was born in the city of Hereford;* 
which I observe the rather, because omitted in his funeral ser 
mon. His father was a fletcher, and a man of no mean estate, 
that vocation being more in use formerly than in our age. He 
was bred first in Brazennose College, then chaplain of Christ 
Church in Oxford. A deep divine, great linguist, who had more 
than a single share in the last translation of the Bible, as hereby 
will appear : 1, More than forty grave divines f were employed 
in several places on that work. 2. When it had passed their 
hands, it was revised by a dozen select ones. 3. This done, it 
was referred to the final examination of Bishop Bilston and Dr. 
Smith. 4. Doctor Smith at last was enjoined to make the pre 
face to the translation, as a comely gate to a glorious city, which 
remains under his own hand in the University library in Ox 
ford. 

Yet was he never heard to speak of the work with any attri 
bution to himself more than the rest. 

He never sought any preferment he had ; and was wont mer 
rily to say of himself, that he was " nullius rei prseterquam li- 
brorum avarus," (covetous of nothing butbooks.J) King James 
preferred him bishop of Gloucester 1612, wherein he behaved 
himself with such meekness, that, in all matters of doubt, the 
bias of his inclination did still hang TTDOC TO <j>i\dvQpi0iroi>. He 
wrote all his books with his own hand (in that faculty not being 

* So Master Stephens, his secretary, informed me F. 

f See their names in our " Church History." F. . 

j See the preface of his works, written by Mr. Stephens. 



76 WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 

short of the professors thereof) ; and, being seventy years of 
age, died and was buried in his own cathedral, 1624. 

SOLDIERS. 

ROBERT DEVEREUX, son of Walter Devereux earl of Essex, 
was born at Nethwood in this county, * November the 10th, 
1567, whilst his father as yet was only Viscount of Hereford. 

He was such a master-piece of court and camp, and so bright 
a light therein, that we will observe his morning, forenoon, high- 
noon, afternoon, and night. 

His morning began at his first coming to court, the gates 
whereof he entered with four great advantages, of pity, kindred, 
favour, and merit : pity, on the account of his father lately dead 
(to say no more) and generally lamented ; kindred, on his mo 
ther s side, Lettice Knowles, near allied to the queen ; favour, 
being son-in-law to Leicester, and so was a favourite s favourite 
at the first day, though he quickly stood on his own legs with 
out holding ; merit, being of a beautiful personage, courteous 
nature, noble descent, fair (though much impaired) fortune. 

Fore-noon; when the queen favourably reflected on him, as 
a grandmother on a grandchild, making him the wanton to her 
fond and indulgent affection, as by this letter, written with her 
own hand, doth appear : 
" ESSEX, 

" Your sudden and undutiful departure from our presence, 
and your place of attendance, you may easily conceive how offen 
sive it is, and ought to be, unto us. Our great favours bestowed 
upon you without deserts, hath drawn you thus to neglect and 
forget your duty ; for other construction we cannot make of 
these your strange actions. Not meaning therefore to tolerate 
this your disordered part, we gave directions to some of our 
privy councel to let you know our express pleasure for your im 
mediate repair hither, which you have not performed as your 
duty doth bind you, increasing thereby greatly your former of 
fence and undutiful behaviour, in departing in such sort with 
out our privity, having so special office of attendance and charge 
near our person. We do therefore charge and command you, 
forthwith upon the receit of these our letters, all excuses and 
delayes set apart, to make your present and immediate repair 
unto us, to understand our further pleasure. Whereof see you 
fail not, as you will be loth to incur our indignation, and will 
answer for the contrary at your uttermost peril. The 15th of 
April, 1589." 

This letter, angry in the first, and loving in the fourth degree, 
was written* to him (sent by Sir Thomas Gorges) on this occa 
sion. The earl, in pursuance of his own martial inclination, 
secretly left the court, to see some service in France. The 

Thomas Mills, in his Catalogue of Honours, p. 863. 



SOLDIERS WRITERS. 77 

queen, passionately loving his person, grievously complained of 
his absence, and often said, " We shall have this young fellow 
knockt on the head, as foolish Sidney was, by his own forward 
ness ; " and was restless till his return. 

I behold him in his high-noon, when he brought victory with 
him home from Cadiz, and was vertical in the esteem of the sol 
diery, and may be said to awaken the queen s jealousy by his 
popularity. 

His afternoon followed ; when he undertook the Irish action, 
too knotty service for his smooth disposition, being fitter for 
personal performance, than conduct and managing of martial 
affairs. And now his enemies work was half done, having got 
ten such a gulf betwixt him and the queen ; for, as Antaeus 
is said to have recruited strength, when he touched his mother 
earth ; so this earl, wrestling with his enemies, suppressed them, 
and supported himself, by his daily access to the queen, which 
distance now denied him. 

His night approached ; when, coming over without leave, he 
was confined by the queen to his house, to reclaim not ruin 
him. Hither a miscellaneous crew of swordsmen did crowd, 
tendering him their service, some of one persuasion, some of 
another, some of all, some of no religion. Their specious pre 
tence was, to take evil counsellors from the queen, though it 
had been happy if they had been first taken away from the earl. 
What his company said they would do, the earl knew ; but what 
would have been done by them, God knows. The earl rising, 
and missing of expected support from the city of London, 
quickly sunk in the queen s final displeasure, anno Domini 
1600. 

He was valiant, liberal to scholars and soldiers, nothing dis 
trustful, if not too confident of fidelity in others. Revengeful- 
ness was not bred, but put into his disposition. Tis hard to 
say, whether such as were his enemies, or such as should be his 
friends, did him more mischief. When one flattered him to his 
face for his valour, " No," said he, " my sins ever made me a 
coward." In a word, his failings were neither so foul nor so 
many, but that the character of a right worthy man most justly 
belongs to his memory. 

WRITERS. 

ROGER of HEREFORD, born in that city, was bred in the 
university of Cambridge, being one of the prime promoters 
of learning therein after the re-foundation of the university by 
the abbot of Crowland.* He was an excellent astronomer ; and, 
stars being made for signs, was a good interpreter what by these 
signs were intended. He wrote a book " Of Judicial Astro 
logy ; " whether to commend or condemn it, such only can sa- 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iii. num. 13. anno 1170. 



78 WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 

tisfy themselves that have seen his book. He was also skilful 
in all metals and minerals ; and his pretty curiosities made him 
acceptable to the nobility of England ; flourishing under king 
Henry the Second, anno Domini 11 70. 

WILLIAM LEMPSTER, a Franciscan, and a doctor of divinity 
in Oxford, was born in that well-known town in this county. 
He wrote " Collations on the Master of the Sentences, and 
Questions in Divinity/ as J. Pits informeth me,* adding withal, 

Heec scripsit, novi, sed non quo tempore novi. 

" Well I know these works he wrot ; 
But for the time I know it not." 

And I am content (for company s sake) with him to be ignorant 
of the exact date thereof. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

RICHARD HACKLUIT was born of an ancient extract in this 

county, whose family hath flourished at in good esteem. 

He was bred a student in Christ Church in Oxford, and after 
was prebendary of Westminster. His genius inclined him to 
the study of history, and especially to the marine part thereof, 
which made him keep constant intelligence with the most noted 
seamen of Wapping, until the day of his death. 

He set forth a large collection of the English sea voyages, 
ancient, middle, modern; taken partly out of private letters 
which never were, or without his had not been, printed ; partly 
out of small treatises, printed, and since irrecoverably lost, 
had not his providence preserved them. For some pamphlets 
are produced, which for their cheapness and smallness men 
for the present neglect to buy, presuming they may procure 
them at their pleasure ; which small books, their first and last 
edition being past (like some spirits that appear but once) 
cannot afterwards with any price or pains be recovered. In 
a word, many of such useful tracts of sea adventures, which 
before were scattered as several ships, Mr. Hackluit hath 
embodied into a fleet, divided into three squadrons, so many 
several volumes : a work of great honour to England ; it being 
possible that many ports and islands in America, which, be 
ing base and barren, bear only a bare namejfor the present, 
may prove rich places for the future. And then these voy 
ages will be produced, and pleaded, as good evidence of 
their belonging to England, as first discovered and denomi 
nated by Englishmen. Mr. Hackluit died in the beginning of 
king James s reign, leaving a fair estate to an unthrift son, 
who embezzled it on this token, that he vaunted, "that he 
cheated the covetous usurer, who had given him spick and. span 
new money, for the old land of his great great grandfather. 

JOHN GWILLIM was of Welch extraction, but born in this 
* In Appendice Anglise Scriptorum. 



WRITERS. 79 

county ;* and became a pursuivant of arms, by the name first 
of Portsmouth, then Rougecroix, but most eminent for his me 
thodical " Display of Herauldry" (confusion being formerly the 
greatest difficulty therein) ; shewing himself a good logician in 
his exact divisions ; and no bad philosopher, noting the natures 
of all creatures given in arms, joining fancy and reason therein. 
Besides his travelling all over the earth in beasts, his industry 
diggeth into the ground in pursuit of the properties of precious 
stones, diveth into the water in quest of the qualities of fishes, 
flieth into the air after the nature of birds, yea mounteth to the 
very skies about stars (but here we must call them estoiles) and 
planets, their use and influence. In a word, he hath unmys- 
teried the mystery of heraldry, insomuch that one of his own 
facultyt thus descanteth (in the twilight of jest and earnest) on 
his performance : 

But let me tell you, this will be the harm 
In arming others you yourself disarm ; 
Our. art is now anatomized so, 
As who knows not what we ourselves do know ? 
Our corn in others mill is ill apaid : 
Sic vos non vobis," may to us be said." 

I suspect that his endeavours met not with proportionable re 
ward. He died about the latter end of the reign of king James. 

JOHN DAVIES of Hereford (for so he constantly styled him 
self) was the greatest master of the pen that England in his age 
beheld; for, 1. Fast-writing ; so incredible his expedition. 2. 
Fair-writing ; some minutes consultation being required to de 
cide, whether his lines were written or printed. 3. Close-writ 
ing ; a mystery indeed, and too dark for my dim eyes to dis 
cover. 4. Various writing ; Secretary, Roman, Court, and Text. 

The poetical fiction of Briareus the giant, who had a hun 
dred hands, found a moral in him, who could so cunningly and 
copiously disguise his aforesaid elemental hands, that by mixing 
he could make them appear a hundred, and if not so many 
sorts, so many degrees of writing. Yet, had he lived longer, he 
would modestly have acknowledged Mr. Githings (who was his 
scholar, and also born in this county) to excel him in that fa 
culty; whilst the other would own no such odious eminency, 
but rather gratefully return the credit to his master again.J 
Sure I am, when two such transcendant penmasters shall again 
come to be born in the same shire, they may even serve fairly to 
engross the will and testament of the expiring universe. Our 
Davies had also some pretty excursions into poetry, and could 
flourish matter as well as letters, with his fancy as well as with 

* See J. Davis of Hereford challenging him for his countryman, in his verses on his 

Display of Heraldry F. 

t Sir William Segar, in his verses before his book. 

j So informed by Master Cox, Draper in London, his executor F. 



80 WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 

his pen. He died at London, in the midst of the reign of king 
James ; and lieth buried in St. Giles in the Fields. 

ROMISH EXILE WRITERS. 

HUMPHRY ELY, born in this county,* was bred in St. John s 
College in Oxford ; whence flying beyond the seas, he lived suc 
cessively at Douay, Rome, and Rheims, till at last he settled 
himself at Pont-muss in Lorraine, where, for twenty years toge 
ther, he was professor of canon and civil law ; and, dying 1604, 
was buried therein with a double epitaph. 

That in verse my judgment commands me not to believe ; 
which here I will take the boldness to translate : 

Albion heereseos velatur node, Viator, 
Desine mirari ; Sol suus hie latitat. 

" Wonder not, reader, that with heresies 
England is clouded; here her Sun he lies." 

The prose-part my charity induces me to credit ; " InopiA 
ferme laborabat, alios inopia sublevans ;" (he eased others of po 
verty, being himself almost pinched therewith.) 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

JOHN WALTER was born in the city of Hereford. Know, 
reader, I could learn little from the ministerf who preached 
his funeral, less from his acquaintance, least from his children. 
Such his hatred of vain-glory, that (as if charity were guiltiness) 
he cleared himself from all suspicion thereof. Yet is our intel 
ligence of him, though brief, true, as followeth : 

He was bred in London, and became clerk of Draper* s-hall. 
Finding the world to flow fast in upon him, he made a solemn 
vow to God, that he would give the surplusage of his estate 
(whatever it was) to pious uses.J Nor was he like to those who 
at first maintained ten thousand pounds too much for any man ; 
which when they have attained they then conceive ten times so 
much too little for themselves : but, after his cup was filled 
brim-full to the aforesaid proportion, he conscientiously gave 
every drop of that which overflowed, to quench the thirst of 
people parched with poverty. 

I compare him to Elizabeth in the Gospel, who, as if 
"ashamed of her shame" (so then reputed) taken from her, 
"hid herself five month s" (so great her modesty). Such his 
concealing of his charity, though pregnant with good works ; and 
had not the lanthorn of his body been lately broken, it is be 
lieved the light of his bounty had not yet been discovered. He 
built and endowed a fair alms-house in Southwark, another at 
Newington (both in Surrey), on which, and other pious uses, he 

* Pits, aetate xvii. numero 1053. 

f Mr. Richard Henchman, of St. Mary Bothaw. 

j Above ten thousand pounds. Luke i. 24. 



BENEFACTORS MEMORABLE PERSONS GENTRY. 81 

expended well nigh ten thousand pounds, whereof twenty 
pounds per annum he gave to Hereford, the place of his nati 
vity. 

His wife and surviving daughters, so far from grudging at his 
gifts, and accounting that lost to them which was lent to God, 
that they much rejoiced thereat, and deserve to be esteemed 
joint-givers thereof, because consenting so freely to his charity. 
He died in the seventy-fourth year of his age, 29th December, 
anno Domini 1656 ; and was solemnly buried in London. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

ROSAMUND, that is, saith my author,* Rosemouth (but by 
allusion termed Rose of the World) was remarkable on many 
accounts. First, for her father, Walter lord Clifford, who had 
large lands about Clifford s Castle in this county. Secondly, for 
herself, being the mistress-piece of beauty in that age. Thirdly, 
for her paramour, king Henry the Second, to whom she was 
concubine. Lastly, for her son, William Longspee, the worthy 
earl of Salisbury. 

King Henry is said to have built a labyrinth at Woodstock 
(which labyrinth through length of time hath lost itself) to hide 
this his mistress from his jealous Juno, queen Eleanor. But 
Zelotypice nihil impervium. By some device she got access unto 
her, and caused her death. 

Rosamund was buried in a little nunnery at Godstowe nigh 
Oxford, with this epitaph : 

Hicjacet in twnbti Rosa mundi, nun Rosamunda ; 
Non redolet, sed old, qua redolere solet. 

" This tomb doth inclose the world s fair rose, so sweet and full of favour ; 

And smell she doth now, but you may guess how, none of the sweetest savour." 

Her corpse may be said to have done penances after her death : 
for Hugh bishop of Lincoln, coming as a visitor to this nunnery, 
and seeing Rosamund s body lying in the choir, under a silken 
hearse, with tapers continually burning about it, thought the 
hearse of an harlot no proper object for eyes of virgins to con 
template on ; therefore caused her bones to be scattered abroad. 
However, after his departure, those sisters gathered her bones 
together again, put them into a perfumed bag, and enclosed 
them in lead, where they continued until ousted again in the 
reign of king Henry the Eighth. 

THE NAMES OF THE GENTRY OF THIS COUNTY, 

RETURNED BY THE COMMISSIONERS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF KING HENRY 

THE SIXTH, ANNO 1433. 

Thomas bishop of Hereford, and James de Audley ; John Sku- 
damore, chevalier, and John Russell, (knights for the shire) ; 
Commissioners for taking the oaths. 



*o 

* Verstegan, Decayed Intelligence, p. 269. 
VOL. II. G 



82 



WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 



Dom. Grey de Whilton, chev. 
Walter! Lucy, chev. 
Radulphi de la Bere, chev. 
Robert! Whiteney, chev. 
Johannis Baskervile, chev. 
Johannis Merbury, arm. 
Richard! de la Mare, arm. 
Thomee Bromwich, sen. arm. 
Johannis Brugge, arm. 
Thomse Bromwich, jun. arm. 
Johannis Melborn, arm. 
Johannis Barre, arm. 
Thomee Donton, arm. 
Hugonis Mortimer, arm. 
Thomee de Lastay, sen. arm. 
Johannis Skudamore, arm. 
Richardi Wigmore, arm. 
Willielmi Croft, arm. 
Walter! Hackluit, arm, 
Willielmi Criketot, arm. 
Ric. Walwain de Mayde, arm. 
Maculmi Walwain, arm. 
W. Walwain de Longford, arm. 
Nicholai Wallwayn, arm. 
Tho. Walwain de Stoke, arm. 
R.Walweyn de Lugwardyn,arm. 
Willielmi Byriton, arm. 
Johannis Stapelton, arm. 
Willielmi Hereford, arm. 
Richardi Habberhale, arm. 
Johannis Aberhale, arm. 
Johannis Deverose, arm. 

Richardi Deverose, arm. 

Johannis de la Bere, arm. 

Willielmi de la Bere, arm. 

Rogeri Bodenham, arm. 

Milonis Watier, arm. 

Radulphi Baskervile, arm, 

Thomse de la Hay, jun. arm. 

Rowland! Lenthall, chev. 

Henrici Oldcastle, arm. 

Henrici Slake, arm. 

Richardi ap Harry, arm. 

Johannis Dansey, arm. 

Henrici ap Griffith, arm. 

Rogeri Wiggemore, arm. 

Hugonis Moynington, arm. 

Johannis Monyngton, arm. 

Walteri Monington, arm. 

Johannis Wise, arm. 



Walt, ap Rosser Vaughan, arm. 
Johannis Dumbleton, arm. 
Thomae Parker, arm. 
Johannis Skellwick, arm. 
Johannis Harper. 
Willielmi Garnons. 
Thomae Brugge de Leye. 
Thomee Brugge de Brugge. 
Thomee Smith de Webley. 
Edmundi Gomond. 
Johannis Alton. 
Johannis Wellynton. 
Roberti Hunte, arm. 
Roberti Bromwich. 
Willielmi Bromwich. 
R. Watteis de Bedingwey. 
Richardi Leon. 
Johannis Goure. 
Willielmi Smethecote. 
Willielmi Hackluit. 
Hugonis Hackluit. 
Jacobi Everard. 
Thomee Brugge de Yuenton. 
Richardi Upton. 
Johannis Upton. 
Rogeri Erlyche. 
Johannis de Ey. 
Egidii Hackluit. 
Thomee Halle. 
Hugonis Warton. 
Johannis Bluwet. 
Johannis Luntelye. 
Philipi Lyngeyn. 
Johannis Bevere. 
Walteri Bradford. 
Johannis Bradford. 
Walteri Walker. 
Thomee Morton. 
Johannis Salisbury. 
Johannis Walker. 
Willielmi Rafes. 
Johannis Sherer. 
Johannis Waldboet. 
Richardi Windesley. 
Joh Mortimer de Bromyerd. 
Thomae Harlowe. 
Johannis Ragon. 
Johannis Broun. 
Johannis Smith. 
Thomee Dovile. 



GENTRY SHERIFFS. 



Johannis Panton, jun. 
Thomas Petit. 
Thomae Horsenet. 
Richard! Wynne. 
Johannis Winter. 
Thomas Loveday. 
Johannis Sheref. 
Thomas Everard. 
Johannis Young. 
Thomas Tomkins. 
Willielmi Shebrond. 
Will. Waleyn de Bickerton. 
Milonis Skulle. 
Rogeri Admonsham. 
Roberti Priour. 
Johannis Watts. 
Richardi Rovenhal. 
Johannis Comyn. 
Richardi Gambdon. 
Henrici Comyn. 
Willielmi Blanchard. 
Willielmi Moynington. 
Johannis Arundell. 
Thomas Arundell. 
Thomas Myntrick. 
Willielmi Gray. 
Johannis Brugge de Rosse. 
Henrici White. 
Richardi Coekes. 
Johannis Wollrich. 
Johannis de Wall. 
Willielmi Lanke. 
Will, ap Thomas ap L. 
Willielmi Gerrard. 
Richardi Trevays. 
Hugonis Cola. 
Richardi de la Hay. 
Hugonis Hergest. 
Johannis Pu. 
Walteri Puy. 
Willielmi Huntington. 
Willielmi Carwardine. 



Johannis Chabenore. 
Will. Smith de Tiberton. 
Willielmi Chamberleyn. 
Howel ap Howel ap Wil 

miston. 

Johannis Wiston. 
Joh. Hunt de Snodhell. 
Thomas Lightfoot. 
Joh. ap Thorn, de Dorston. 
Galfredi ap Thomas. 
Johannis Pychard. 
Thomas Bruyn. 
Georgii Braynton, Majoris Ci- 

vitatis Hereford. 
Walteri Mibbe. 
Henrici Chippenham. 
Johannis Fulk, draper. 
Johannis Mey. 
Johannis Fuister. 
Thomas Hore. 
Johannis Green. 
Richardi Green. 
Richardi Prat. 
Thomas Bradwardyn. 
Richardi Russell. 
Richardi Barbour. 
Johannis Orchard. 
Jacobi Orchard. 
Johannis Dudley. 
Richardi Hough ton. 
Rogeri Collyng. 
Johannis Collier. 
Thomas Choppynham. 
Henrici Cachepolle. 
Thomas Knobelle. 
Hugonis Clerk. 
Thomas Combe. 
Thomas Verbum. 
Johannis Elynner. 
Joh. Heyward de Bodenham. 
Rob. Wych de Ludwardyn. 



HENRY II. 



Anno. 
1 

2 Walt, de Hereford, for 
five years. 



SHERIFFS. 
Anno 

7 Will, de Bello Campo, 

for nine years. 
16 Idem, et Walt. Clicums. 



G 2 



84 



WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 



Anno 

1 7 Willielmus de la Lega. 

18 Gilbertus Pypard. 

19 Idem. 

20 Willielmus de Braiose. 

21 Idem. 

22 Radulphus Pulcherus, for 

seven years. 

29 Milo de Mucegros, et 
Willielmus Torelle. 

30 Willielmus Torelle. 

31 Radul. Arden. 

32 Idem. 

33 Idem. 

RICH. I. 

1 Radul. de Arden. 

2 Hen. de longo Campo. 

3 Willielmus de Braiosa. 

4 Idem. 

5 Hen. de longo Campo, et 
Willielmus de Braiosa. 

6 Roger. Fitz-Mauricis. 

7 Willielmus de Braiosa. 

8 Idem. 

9 Willielmus de Braiosa, et 
Willielmus de Burchhull. 

10 Idem. 

JOHAN. 

. 1 Walter, de Clifford, et 
Gilbertus Clifford. 

2 Willielmus de Braiosa, et 
Willielmus Burchull. 

3 Hubert, de Burgo, et 
Rich, de Signes, for three 

years. 

6 Willielmus de Cantulum, et 
Walter, de Puhier. 

7 Idem. 

8 Walt, de Clifford, et 
Osbert. fil. Willielmi. 

9 Idem. 

10 Gerer. de Atria, et 
Rich, de Burges. 

11 Idem. 

12 Endebard. de Cicomato, et 
Rich, de Burges. 



Anno 

1 3 Enozelcardus, de Cicomato, 
et Rich. Burgeis sive Bur- 
zeis, for four years. 

HENR. III. 

1 Walt, de Lascy, et 

2 Tho. de Anesey. 

3 Walt, de Lascy, et 
Warrinus de Grindon, for 

three years. 

6 Walt, de Lascy, et 
Tho. de Anesey. 

7 Walt, de Lascy. 

8 Radulph. films Nic. et 
Hen. films Nic. frater ejus, 

for three years. 
11 Radul. filius Nich. et 
Hen. frater ejus, et 
Jo. de East, for three 

years. 

14 Joan, de Fleg. 

15 Idem. 

16 Johan. de Munemus. 

17 Williel. filius Warrini. 

18 Idem. 

19 Amaricus de S to Aman. 

20 Amari. de S to Amando, et 
Ricard. de Fardingston. 

21 Idem. 

22 Amari. de S to Amando, et 
Matth. de Coddray, for 

three years. 

25 Amaricus de Cancell, for 
seven years. 

32 Waleranus. 

33 Waleranus de Bradlegh. 

34 Hugo de Kinardell. 

35 Hen. de Bradlegh. 

36 Idem. 

37 Williel. de S to Omero. 

38 Idem. 

39 Joan, de Brekon (sive Bre 

con) for three years. 

42 Hen. de Penebrige. 

43 Idem, et 

Ric. de Baggindin. 

44 Robertus de Meysy. 



SHERIFFS. 



85 



Anno 

45 Idem. 

46 Robertus de Meysy, et 
Adam, de Bideford, for 

seven years. 
53 Barthol. de Buly, et 

Adam, de Botiler, for three 
years. 

EDW. I. 

1 Barthol. de Stutely, et 
Adam de Botiler. 

2 Idem. 

3 Joan, de Ware. 

4 Egid. de Berkel, for three 

years. 

7 Roger, de Barghall. 

8 Idem. 

9 Rog. de Burghall, for ten 

years. 
19 Hen. de Solers, for three 

years. 
22 Johan. de Acton, for six 

years. 
28 Milo Picard, for six years, 

34 Johan. de Acton. 

35 Tho. Rossal. 

EDW. II. 

1 Walt, de Halits, for four 

years. 
5 Rog. de Chandos, for three 

years. 

8 Richard, de Baskervil. 

9 Idem. 

10 Hugo Hackluit. 

11 Idem. 

12 Roger, de Elmerugge. 

13 Idem. 

14 Roger. Chandos, for five 

years. 



Anno 



EDW. III. 



1 Roger, de Chandos, for 
five years. 

6 Johannes de Rous. 

7 Idem. 

8 Johan. Mauger, 
Robert. Chandos, et 
Jo. le Rous. 

9 Idem. 

10 Rich. Walwayn, for seven 
years. 

17 Johan. Walwayn. 

18 Williel. de Radour, for 

three years. 

21 Tho. Pichard. 

22 Joha. Scholle, et 
Tho. Pichard. 

23 Rich. Dansy, et 
Johan. Sholle. 

24 Rich. Dansy. 

25 Tho. de Aston. 

26 Rich, de Surges. 

27 Idem. 

28 Rich. Bregg. 

29 Rich, de la Bere. 

30 Tho. Atte Barre, et 
Ric. de la Bere. 

31 Ed. Hacklut, for three 

years. 

34 Thomas Chandois. 

35 Ric. de la Bere, for ten 

years. 

45 Tho. Chandois. 

46 Will. Devereux de Rod. 

47 Tho. Chandois. 

48 Idem. 

49 Edw. de Surges. 

50 Walter. Devereux, et 
Tho. de la Bere. 

51 Idem. 



This county had sheriffs long before king Henry the Second, 
as may appear by the direction of this writ, in the first of king 
Henry the First. 

" Henricus, Dei gratia Rex Anglise, Hugoni de Boclande Vice- 
comiti, et omnibus fidelibus suis, tarn Francis quam Anglicis, 
in Herefordshire, salutem, &c."* 

* Matthew Paris, anno Domini 1100 



86 WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 

But such the uncertainty of their succession, it will be very 
well if we can continue our catalogue from the general era in 
other counties. 

EDWARD II. 

8. RICHARDUS de BASKERVIL. This name is of great anti 
quity in these parts, whose ancestors immediately after the Con 
quest were benefactors to the abbey of Saint Peter s in Glou 
cester, as by the ensuing will appear :* 

1 . " Bernardus de Baskervile, cum semetipso, quando habi- 
tum monachi suscepit, dedit Ecclesise sancti Petri Glouc. unam 
hidam terrse in Cumba. Walterus et Robertus de Baskervile 
confirmant tempore Homelini Abbatis." 

2. "Anno Domini 1109, Robertus de Baskervilla, de Jeru- 
salemf reversus, dedit Ecclesise Sancti Petri Glouc. unam hidam 
extra muros quidem Civitatis, ubi est nunc Hortus Monacho- 
rum, Rege Henrico confirmante, tempore Petri Abbatis." 

As these came out of Normandy from a town so named, so 
are they extant at this day in this county ; and have formerly 
been famous and fortunate for their military achievements. 

SHERIFFS OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 

RICH. II. 

Anno Name and Arms. Place. 

1 Rob, Whitney, arm. . Whitney. 

Az. a cross cheeky O. and G. 

2 Sim. de Brugge. 

Arg. on a cross S. a leopard s head O. 

3 Joh. Walwayne. 

G. a bend within a border Erm. 

4 Hugo Carew. 

O. three lions passant gardant S. 

5 Sim. de Brugge . . . ut prius. 

6 Joh. Walwayne . . . ut prius. 

7 Rog. Pauncefort. 

G. three lions rampant Arg. 

8 Tho. de la Barre . . . Kinnersley. 

Az. a bend Arg. cotised O. betwixt six martlets of the same. 

9 Nic. Maurdin. 

10 Tho. Oldcastle. 

Arg. a tower triple towered S. 

11 Rinardus, sive Kinardus, de la Bere. 

12 Tho. de la Barre . . . ut prius. 

13 Tho. Walwayn . . . ut prius. 

14 Hu. de Monington. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three unicorns S. 



Monasticon Anglicanum, p. 113. f Idem, p. 115. 



SHERIFFS. 87 

Anno Name. Place. 

15 Tho. Oldcastle . . . ut prius. 

16 Mascre. de la Ma. 

17 Tho. Walwayne . . . ut prius. 

18 Joh. Walwayne . . . ut prius. 

19 Tho. de la Barre . . . ut prius. 

20 Idem ut prius. 

21 Tho. Clanowe. 

22 Idem. 

HENRY IV. 

1 Joh. ap Harry. 

2 Will. Lucy, mil. 

G. crusule O. three pikes hauriant Arg. 
Leon. Haklut, mil. . . Yetton. 
G. three battle-axes O. 

3 Joh. Bodenham. 

Az. a fess betwixt three chess-rooks O. 

4 Idem ut prius. 

5 Idem ut prius. 

6 Joh. Merbury. 

7 Joh. Oldcastle, mil. . . ut prius. 
8 

9 Joh. Skudamore, mil. . Holm Lacy. 

10 Joh. Smert. 

G. three stirrups leathered and buckled O, 

11 Joh. Bodenham . . . ut prius. 

12 Will. Walwein . . . ut prius. 

HENRY v. 

1 Robert Whitney. . . ut prius. 

2 Johan. Merbury. 

3 Johan. Bodenham . . ut prius. 

4 Johan. Brugge . . . ut prius. 

5 Johan. Russel. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three crosses crosslet fitchee S. 

6 Thorn. Holgot. 

7 Johan. Merbury. 

8 Rich, de la Bere. 

9 Idem. 

HENRY VI, 

1 Rich, de la Mare. 

2 Row. Lenthal. 

S. a bend lozengee Arg. 

3 Guid. Whittington . . Hampton. 

G. a fess cheeky O. and Az. 

4 Johan. Merbury. 

5 T. de la Hay, jun. 



88 WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

6 Ro. Whitney, mil. 

7 Ric. de la Mare . . . ut prius. 

8 Job. Merbury. 

9 Job. Skudemore, mil. . ut prius. 
10 

1.1 R. Whitney, mil. 

12 T. de la Hay .... ut prius. 

13 Tho. Merbury. 

14 Tho. Mille. 

15 Rob. Whitney . . . . ut prius. 

16 J. Pauncefoote . . . ut prius. 

17 Waltery Skull. 

Arg. a bend .... betwixt six lions heads erased ot the 
field. 

18 Ric. Walwin .... ut prius. 

19 Will. Lucy .... ut prius. 

20 Idem ut prius. 

21 Hen. Charleton . . . ut prius. 

22 Tho. Parker. 

23 Rad. Walwain . . . ut prius. 

24 Tho. Mille. 

25 Hum. Stafford. 

O. a chevron G. a quarter Erm. 

26 Walter. Devereux . . Webley. 

Arg. a fess G. ; in chief three torteaux. 

27 Walt. Skull, mil. . . ut prius. 

28 Job. Skudemore . . . ut prius. 

29 Job. Berry, mil. 

30 Tho. Parker, arm. 

31 Tho. Cornwayl. 

Erm. a lion rampant G. crowned O. within a border en 
grailed S. bezantee. 

S2 Will. Lucy, arm. . . ut prius. 

33 Jo, Barry, mil. 

34 Walt. Skul, mil. . . . ut prius. 

35 Jo. Skudamore, mil. . ut prius. 

36 Job. Seymor, mil. 

G two angels wings pale-ways inverted O. 

37 W. Catesby, mil. 

Arg. two lions passant S. couronne O. 

38 Jam. Baskervill . . . Erdssey. 

Arg. a chevron G. betwixt three heurts proper. 

EDWARD IV. 

1 Job. Welford. 

2 Tho. Monington . . . ut prius. 

3 Idem ut prius. 

4 Sim. Melburn, arm. 



SHERIFFS. 89 

Anno Name. Place. 

5 Joh. Baskervill, mil. . ut prius. 

6 Joh. Lingein, arm. 

Barry of six, O. and Az. on a bend G. three cinquefoils 
Arg. 

7 Tho. Cornwall, arm. . ut prius. 

8 Wai. Wigmore. 

Arg. three greyhounds in pale currant S. collared G. 

9 W. Baskervil, mil. . . ut prius. 

10 Ric. Croft, sen., arm. . Croft Castle. 

Quarterly, per fess indented Az. and Arg. ; in the first 
quarter a lion passant O. 

11 Ric. Croft, sen., mil. . ut prius. 

12 Joh. Lingein, mil. . . ut prius. 

13 Tho. Monington . . . ut prius. 

14 Jam. Baskervil, mil. .-. ut prius. 

15 Rob. Whitney . . . ut prius. 

16 Rich, Crofts, mil. , . ut prius. 

17 Radulph. Hacluit . . ut prius. 

18 J. Mortimer, mil. 

Barry of six O. and Az. ; on a chief of the first three 
pallets inter two esquires dexter and sinister of the 
second, an inescutcheon Arg. 

19 R. de la Bere, mil. 

20 Simon Melborne. 

21 Ja. Baskervil, mil. . . ut prius. 

22 Johan. Mortimer . . ut prius. 

RICHARD III. 

1 Rich, de la Bere, mil. 

2 Tho. Cornwal, mil, . . ut prius. 

3 Rich. Crofts, mil. . . ut prius. 



HENRY VII. 



1 Johan. Mortimer . . ut prius. 

2 Johann. Lingeyn . . ut prius. 

3 Roger. Bodenham . . ut prius. 

4 Henr. Skudamore . . ut prius. 

5 Joh. Devereux, mil. . ut prius. 

6 Tho. Monington . . ut prius. 

7 Rich. Greenway. 

8 Ric. de la Bere, mil. 

9 Jo. Mortimer, mil. . ut prius. 

10 Edw. Blunt, arm. 

Barry nebule of six O. and S. 

11 Joh. Lingein, mil. . . ut prius. 

12 Hen. Harper, arm. 

A. lion rampant within a border engrailed S. 



90 WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

13 Job. Lingein, arm. . . ut prius. 

14 Rich. Green way . . . ut prius. 

15 Hen. Mile, arm. 

16 Rich. Miners, arm. 

17 Joh. Mortimer, mil. . . ut prius. 
1ST. Cornwaile, mil. . . ut prius. 

19 Idem ut prius. 

20 Edw. Croft, arm. . . ut prius, 

21 J. Lingein, jun. mil. . ut prius. 

22 R. Cornwaile, arm. . . ut prius. 

23 Rad. Hackluit, arm. . ut prius. 

24 Hen. Mile, arm. 

HEN. VIII. 

1 Edw. Croft, arm. . . ut prius. 

2 Rich, de la Bere, arm. . ut prius. 

3 Th. Monington, arm. , ut prius. 

4 Hen. Mile, arm. 

5 Edw. Croft, mil. . . . ut prius. 

6 Th. Cornwaile, mil. . . ut prius. 

7 Will. Herbert, mil. 

Partie per pale Az. and G. three lions rampant Arg. 

8 Joh. Lingein, mil. . . ut prius. 

9 Edw. Croft, mil. .... ut prius. 

10 Rad. Hackluit . ; . ut prius. 

11 Rich. Cornwall . . . ut prius. 

12 Joh. Lingein, mil. . . ut prius. 

13 Edw. Croft, mil. . . . ut prius. 

14 Row. Morton. 

Quarterly G. and Erm. ; in the first and fourth a goat s 
head erased Arg. 

15 Jaco. Baskervile . . . ut prius, 

16 Jo. Skudemore, arm. . ut prius. 

17 Hen. Vain, arm. . . KENT. 

Az. three left-hand gauntlets O. 

18 Rich. Cornwail . . . ut prius. 

19 Tho. Baskervil, arm. . ut prius. 

20 Tho. Lingein, mil. . . ut prius. 

21 Edw. Croft, mil. . . . ut prius. 

22 Ri. Vaughan, mil. 

23 Ric. Walwein, arm. . . ut prius. 

24 T. Monington, arm. . ut prius. 

25 Edw. Croft, mil. . . ut prius. 

26 Mic. Lister, arm. 

27 Will. Clinton, arm. et 
Tho. Clinton, arm. 

28 Joh. Skudamor, arm. . ut prius. 



SHERIFFS. 



91 



Anno 



Name. 



Place. 



ut prius. 



29 Joh. Blount, arm. . 

30 J. Packington, arm. 

Per chevron S. and Arg. ; in chief three mullets O. in 

base as many garbs G. 

31 Mich. Lister, arm. 

32 Tho. Monington . . ut prius. 

33 Rich. Vaughan. 

34 Jac. Baskervil, mil. v ut prius. 

35 Joh. Skudamore . . ut prius. 

36 Joh. Leingein, arm. . ut prius, 

37 Step, ap Harry, arm. 

38 Rog. Bodenham . . . ut prius. 

EDW. VI. 

1 Joh. Corn wail, mil. . . ut prius. 

2 Th. Baskervile, arm. . ut prius. 

3 Johan. Harley, arm. . Brampton. 

O. a bend cotised S. 

4 Jac. Baskervile . . . ut prius. 

5 Jam. Baskervil . . . ut prius. 

6 Joh. Skudamore, arm. . ut prius. 

PHIL, et MAR. 

1 Johan. Price, mil. 

2 Tho. Howard, arm. 

G. a bend between six cross crosslets fitchee Arg. 

3 Joh. Baskervil . . . ut prius. 

4 Tho. Winston, arm. . ut prius. 

5 Rich. Monington. 

6 Rog. Bodenham, arm. . ut prius. 



ELIZ. REG. 

1 Geo. Cornwal, mil. . 

2 Tho. Blount, arm. . 

3 Joh. Harley, arm. 

4 Joh. Huband, arm. 

5 Geo. ap Harry, arm. 

6 Jam. Baskervil . . 

7 Jo. Skudamore, arm. 

8 Georgius Price, arm. 

9 Will. Shelley, arm. . . SUSSEX. 

S. a fess engrailed between three periwinkle shells O. 

10 |rho. Clinton, arm. 

11 Th. Baskervile, arm. . Nethwood. 

12 Joh. Baskervil, arm. . ut prius. 

13 Joh. Huband, mil. 

14 Hugo ap Harry. 



ut prius. 
ut prius. 
ut prius. 



ut prius. 
Kein Church. 



02 WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place, 

15 Job. Abrahal, arm. 

Az. three porcupines O. 

16 Jac. Whitney, mil. . . ut prius. 

17 Georg. Price, arm. 

18 Jac. Warcomb. 

19 Tho. Morgan, arm. 

20 Wa. Baskervil, arm. . ut prius. 

21 Will, Cecil, arm. . . Altrinnis. 

Barry of ten Arg. and Az. ; on six escutcheons three, two, 
and one, S. as many lions rampant of the first. 

22 Fran. Blount, arm. . . ut prius. 

23 Ja. Skudamore, arm. . ut prius. 

24 Tho. Conisby, arm. . ut prius. 

25 Ric. Walweyn, arm. . Langford. 

G. a bend with a border Erm. ; in chief a hound 
passant O. 

26 Hu. Baskervile, arm. . ut prius. 

27 Ro. Bodenham, arm. . ut prius. 

28 Ja. Whitney, mil. . . ut prius. 

29 Jac. Boyle, arm. 

Partie per bend, embattled Arg. and G. 

30 Joh. Berington, arm. . Courar. 

31 Th. Baskervile, arm. . ut prius. 

32 Cha. Brudges, arm. . . ut prius. 

33 Will. Rudham, arm. . Rudham. 

34 Rich. Tomkins, arm. . Moniton. 

Az. a chevron betwixt three pheasant-cocks O. 

35 Ro. Bodenham, arm. . ut prius. 

36 Tho. Harley, arm. . . ut prius. 

37 Geo. Price, arm. 

38 Eustac. Whitney . . ut prius. 

39 Nich. Garnons, arm. . Garnons. 

G. two lions passant O. within a border Az. 

40 Tho. Conisby . . . ut prius. 

41 Will. Dauntsey, arm. . Brinsop. 

Barry wavy of six pieces Arg. and G. 

42 Hen. Vaughan, arm. 

43 Ja. Skudamore, mil. . ut prius. 

44 Rich. Hyatt, arm. . . Sauntfield. 

45 Tho. Harley .... ut prius. 



JAC. REX. 



1 Tho. Harley, arm. . . ut prius. 

2 Joh. Blount, arm. . . ut prius. 

3 Joh. Berington, arm. . ut prius. 

4 Jacob. Tomkins, arm. . ut prius. 

5 Will. Rudhal, arm. 



SHERIFFS. 93 

Anno Name. Place. 

6 Job. Kirle, arm. . . . Much Marcle. 

V. a chevron betwixt three flower-de-luces O. 

7 Rich. Hopton, mil. . . Hopton. 

G. seme de cross crosslets a lion rampant O. 

8 Hu. Baskervil, mil. . . ut prius. 

9 Hum. Cornwall, arm. . ut prius. 

10 Rob. Kirle, arm. . . . ut prius. 

11 Job. Colles, arm. 

12 Fran. Smalman, arm. . Kinnesley. 

13 Rich. Cox, arm. 

14 Row. Skadmor, arm. . ut prius. 

15 Ambro. Elton, arm. . . Lidbury. 

Paly of six O. and G. on a bend S. three mullets of the 
first. 

16 Herb. Westfaling. 

Arg. a cross betwixt four cheval-traps O. 

17 Will. Unet, arm. . . Cast. Frome. 

S. a chevron between three lions heads couped Arg. 

18 Edw. Leingein, arm. . ut prius. 

19 Job. Bridges, arm. 

20 Sam. Aubrie, mil. 

G. a fess engrailed Arg. 

21 Jac, Rodd, arm. 

22 Fran. Pember, arm. 

Arg. three moor-cocks proper, combed and jealoped G. ; 
a chief Az. 

CAB. REG. 

1 Egidius Bridges, arm. . Wilton. 

Arg. on a cross S. a leopard s head O. 

2 Fitz Will. Conisby . . ut prius. 

3 Will. Read, arm. 

4 Johan. Kirle, bar. . . ut prius. 

5 Jac. Kirle, arm. . . . ut prius. 

6 Walop. Brabazon . . Eaton. 

G. on a bend Arg. three martlets of the first. 

7 Rog. Dansey, arm. . . ut prius. 

8 Ph. Holman, arm. 

9 Job. Abrahal, arm. . . ut prius. 

10 Will. Skudamore . . ut prius. 

11 Tho. Wigmore, arm. 

S. three greyhounds currant Arg. 

12 Rog. Vaughan, arm. 

13 Hen. Lingein, arm. . . ut prius. 

14 Rob. Whitney, mil. . . ut prius. 
15 

16 

17 Isaacus Seward. 



94 WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

Ill 

2Q ^ ff(ec fecit mania Mavors. 



22 Amb. Elton, jun. arm. . ut prius. 

KING HENRY VI. 

26. WALTER DEVEREUX. I have vehement and (to use 
the Lord Coke s epithet) necessary presumptions, to persuade 
me that he was the same person who married Anne, daughter 
and sole heir unto William Lord Ferrers of Chartley, and in her 
right was afterwards by this king created Lord Ferrers. He 
was father to, 1. John Lord Ferrers of Chartley, who married 
Cecily sister to Henry Bourchier, Earl of Essex ; and was father 
to, 2. Walter Devereux Earl Ferrers, created Viscount Here 
ford by king Edward the Sixth; and was father to, 3. Sir 
Richard Devereux, knight, dying before his father ; and father 
to, 4. Walter Devereux, first Earl of Essex of that family ; of 
whom largely hereafter, God willing, in Carmarthenshire, the 
place of his nativity. 

EDWARD IV. 

14. JAMES BASKERVILE, Miles. 

18. JOHN MORTIMER, Miles. 

19. RICHARD de la BERE, Miles. 

This leash of knights were persons of approved valour and 
loyalty to king Henry the Seventh, by whom (being knights 
bachelors before) they were made knights bannerets in the 
beginning of his reign : I confess some difference in the date 
and place ; one assigning the Tower of London, when Jasper 
was created duke of Bedford ;* another with far more probabi 
lity naming Newark, just after the fighting of the battle of Stoke 
hard by.f Nor doth it sound a little to the honour of Here 
fordshire, that, amongst the thirteen then bannereted in the 
king s army, three fall out to be her natives. 

HENRY VIII. 

11. RICHARDUS CORNWALL. He was a knight, howsoever 
it cometh to pass he is here unadditioned. I read how, anno 
Domini 1523, in the 15th of king Henry the Eighth, he \vas 
a prime person among those many knights which attended the 
duke of Suffolk into France, at what time they summoned and 
took the town of Roy ; and Sir Richard was sent, with four hun 
dred men, to take possession thereof, the only service of remark 
performed in that expedition.^ 

* Stow s Chronicles, p. 471. 

Selclen, in his Titles of Honour, p. 700, ex mnnuscrijito. 
j Lord Herbert, in the Life of king Henry VIII., p. 151. 



SHERIFFS THE FAREWELL. 95 



QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

Reader, let me confess myself to thee. I expected to have 
found in this catalogue of sheriffs Sir JAMES CROFTS (knowing 
he was this countryman, whose family * flourished at Crofts 
Castle); but am defeated, seeing his constant attendance on 
court and camp privileged him from serving in this office. This 
worthy knight was accused for complying with Wiat ; and not 
withstanding his most solemn oath in his own defence, he was 
imprisoned by queen Mary, convicted of high treason ; restored 
by queen Elizabeth, and made governor of the town and castle 
of Berwick, f 

At the siege of Leith, he behaved him most valiantly in re 
pelling the foe; and yet when, in a second assault, the English 
were worsted, the blame fell on him (as if he favoured the French, 
and maligned the lord Gray then general); so that he was ousted 
of his government in Berwick, Yet he fell not so into the 
queen s final disfavour, but that she continued him privy coun 
cillor, and made him comptroller of her househould. He was 
an able man to manage war, and yet an earnest desirer and ad 
vancer of peace, being one of the commissioners in 1588 to treat 
with the Spaniards in Flanders : I conceive he survived not long 
after. His ancient inheritance in this county is lately devolved 
to Herbert Croft,! D-D. and dean of Hereford. 

40. THOMAS COIVISBY, Mil. I have heard from some of 
this county a precious report of his memory ; how he lived in a 
right worshipful equipage, and founded a place in Hereford for 
poor people; but to what proportion of revenue, they could not 
inform me. 

43. JAMES SKUDAMORE, Knight. He was father unto Sir 
John Skudamore, created by king Charles Viscount Sligo in 
Ireland. This lord was for some years employed Leiger ambas 
sador in France ; and, during the tyranny of the Protectorian 
times, kept his secret loyalty to his sovereign, hospitality to his 
family, and charity to the distressed clergy, whom he bountifully 
relieved. 

THE FAREWELL. 

I am credibly informed, that the office of the under-sheriff of 
this county is more beneficial than in any other county of the 
same proportion ; his fees, it seems, increasing from the de 
crease of the states of the gentry therein. May the obventions 
of his office hereafter be reduced to a lesser sum ! And seeing 
God hath blessed (as we have formerly observed) this county 
with so many W s , we wish the inhabitants the continuance and 

* Camden s Elizabeth, in apparatu. f Idem, anno 1560. 
J: Afterwards Bishop of Hereford, 1661-1691 ED. 



96 WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 

increase of one more, WISDOM, expressing itself both in the im 
proving of their spiritual concernment, and warily managing 
their secular estates. 



WORTHIES OF HEREFORDSHIRE WHO HAVE FLOURISHED 
SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER, 

Thomas BLOUNT, author on Manorial Tenures : born at Orle- 

ton about 1618 ; died 1679. 
George Lord CARPENTER, general, victor at Preston ; born at 

Pitcher s Ocule 1667. 
Catherine CLIVE, comic actress ; born at Hereford 1711 ; died 

1785. 
David GARRICK, the " English Roscius " born at Hereford 

1716; died 1779. 
Hon. Edward HARLEY, Auditor of the Imprest, benefactor; 

born at Brampton Brian, 1664. 
William HAVARD, song writer, author of " Banks of the Lugg;" 

born at Hereford 1734. 

Stringer LAWRENCE, East India Major-general; born at Here 
ford 1697; died 1775. 
Edward LONGMORE, " Hereford Colossus," 7 feet 6 inches high; 

died 1777. 
William POWELL, actor, pupil and protege of Garrick; born at 

Hereford; died 1769. 
John PRICE, historian of his native town ; born at Leominster; 

died 1802. 
John Ross, Bishop of Exeter, classical scholar and author; 

born at Ross 1719; died 1792. 



%* The county of Hereford is comparatively destitute of a general historian. In 
1804, however, Collections towards the History of the County were published, in 
an imperfect state, by John Duncomb ; some Introductory Sketches having been 
previously given to the world, in 1791, by the Rev. John Lodge. Histories of the 
city have also appeared, from the pens of Dr. Rawlinson (1717) , and of John Price 
(1796) ; the latter of whom published an Account of Leominister in 1795. 



HUNTINGDONSHIRE. 



HUNTINGDONSHIRE is surrounded with Northampton, Bed 
ford, and Cambridge-shires ; and, being small in extent, hardly 
stretcheth twenty miles outright, though measured to the most 
advantage. The general goodness of the ground may certainly 
be collected from the plenty of convents erected therein, at St. 
Neot s, Hinchingbrookj Huntingdon, Sautrie, St. Ives, Ram 
sey, &c ; so that the fourth foot at least in this shire was abbey- 
land, belonging to monks and friars ; and such weeds, we know, 
would not grow but in rich ground. If any say that monks might 
not choose their own habitations (being confined therein to the 
pleasures of their founders), know, there were few founders that 
did not first consult some religious person in the erection of 
convents ; and such would be sure to choose the best for men of 
their own profession. Sure I am it would set all England hard 
to show in so short a distance so pleasant a park as Way- 
bridge, so fair meadow as Portsholme, and so fruitful a town 
for tillage as Godmanchester ; all three within so many miles in 
this county. 

No peculiar commodity or manufacture (save with others equally 
intercommoning) appearing in this county, let us proceed. 

THE BUILDINGS. 

KIMBOLTON CASTLE. This, being part of the jointure of 
queen Katherine dowager, was chosen by her to retire thereunto ; 
as neither too near to London, to see what she would not ; 
nor so far off, but that she might hear what she desired. Here 
she wept out the remnant of her widowhood (while her hus 
band \vas yet alive) in her devotions. This castle came after 
wards by gift to the Wingfields ; from them by sale to the 
Montagues ; Henry late earl of Manchester sparing no cost 
which might add to the beauty thereof. 

HTNCHINBROOK, once a nunnery, and which I am confident 
will ever be a religious house whilst it relateth to the truly noble 
Edward Montague, earl of Sandwich, the owner thereof. It 
sheweth one of the most magnificent rooms which is to be 
beheld in our nation. 

We must not forget the house and chapel in Little Gedding 
(the inheritance of Master Ferrar) which lately made a great 

VOL. i. H 



98 WORTHIES OF HUNTINGDONSHIRE. 

noise all over England.* Here three numerous female families 
(all from one grandm other) t lived together in a strict disci 
pline of devotion. They rose at midnight to prayers ; and other 
people most complained thereof, whose heads, I dare say, never 
ached for want of sleep. Sure I am, strangers by them were 
entertained, poor people were relieved, their children instructed 
to read, whilst their own needles were employed in learned and 
pious work, to bind Bibles ; whereof one most exactly done was 
presented to king Charles. But their society was beheld by 
some as an embryo nunnery, suspecting that there was a Pope 
Joan therein ; which causeless cavil afterwards confuted itself, 
when all the younger of those virgins practised the precept of 
St. Paul, to marry, bear children, and guide their houses. J 

MEDICINAL WATERS. 

There is an obscure village in this county, near St. Neot s, 
called Haile-weston, whose very name soundeth something of 
sanativeness therein ; so much may the adding of what is no 
letter, alter the meaning of a word ; for, 1 , Aile signifieth a sore 
or hurt, with complaining, the effect thereof. 2. Haile (having 
an affinity with Heile, the Saxon idol for Esculapius) importeth 
a cure, or medicine to a malady. 

Now in the aforesaid village there be two fountain-lets, which 
are not far asunder: 1. One sweet, conceived good to help the 
dimness of the eyes : 2. The other in a manner salt, esteemed 
sovereign against the scabs and leprosy. 

What saith St. James ; " Doth a fountain send forth at the 
same place sweet water and bitter? "|| meaning in an ordinary 
way, without miracle. Now although these different waters 
flow from several fountains; yet, seeing they are so near toge 
ther, it may justly be advanced to the reputation of a wonder. 

PROVERBS. 

" This is the way to Beggar s-bush."] 

It is spoken of such who use dissolute and improvident 
courses, which tend to poverty; Beggar s-bush being a tree 
notoriously known, on the left hand of London road from Hun 
tingdon to Caxton. I have heard how king James, being in 
progress in these parts with Sir Francis Bacon the lord chancel 
lor, and having heard that morning how Sir Francis had prodi 
giously rewarded a mean man for a small present ; " Sir Frau 
ds," said he, " you will quickly come to Beggar s-bush ; and I 
may even go along with you, if both be so bountiful." 
" Ramsey the Rich."^] 

This was the Cresus, or Croesus, of all our English abbeys ; 

* In the beginning of the Long Parliament. F. 

f See the Biographia Britannica, vol. vi. ED. J 1 Tim. y. 14. 

Camden s Britannia, in Dorsetshire. || James iii. 11. 

If J. Speed (or Sir Robert Cotton rather), in the description of Huntingdonshire. 



SAINTS PREDATES. 

for, having but sixty monks to maintain therein, the revenues 
thereof, according to the standard of those times, amounted 
unto seven thousand pounds a year,* which, in proportion, was 
a hundred pounds for every monk, and a thousand for their 
abbot. Yet, at the dissolution of monasteries, the income of 
this abbey was reckoned but at one thousand nine hundred 
eighty-three pounds by the year,t whereby it plainly appears 
how much the revenues were under-rated in those valuations. 

But how soon is Crassus made Codrus } and Ramsey the Rich 
become Ramsey the Poor ! The wealth of the town, relative 
with the abbey, was dissolved therewith ; and more the mendi 
cants since in Ramsey than the monks were before. However, 
now there is great hope that Ramsey, after the two extremes of 
wealth and want, will at last be fixed in a comfortable medio 
crity, the wish of Agur being granted unto him, " Give me nei 
ther poverty nor riches," J especially since it is lately erected (or 
rather restored) to the dignity of a market-town. And surely 
the convenient situation thereof, since the draining of the fens, 
doth advantage it to be a staple place for the sale of fat and lean 
cattle. 

SAINTS. 

ELFLED, daughter of Ethelwold earl of East Angles (founder 
of the monastery of Ramsey in this county) was preferred 
abbess of Ramsey, and confirmed by king Edgar therein. She 
is reported to excel in austerity and holiness of life. When her 
steward complained unto her, that she had exhausted her cof 
fers with the profuseness of her charity, she with her prayers 
presently recruited them to their former fulness. When her 
candle, as she read the lesson, casually went out, there came 
such a brightness from the fingers of her right hand, that it 
enlightened the whole choir ; which is as true as the new lights 
to which our modern sectaries do pretend ; the one having mi 
racles, the other revelations, at their fingers ends. She died 
anno Domini 992, being buried in the Lady Church at Ramsey 
with high veneration. 

PRELATES. 

WILLIAM de WHITLESEY. No printed author mentioning 
the place of his birth and breeding, he was placed by us in 
this county, finding Whitlesey a town therein (so memo 
rable for the Mere), and presuming that this William did fol 
low suit with the best of his coat in that age, surnamed from 
the places of their nativity. Mr. Parker (I tell you my story 

* Camden s Britannia, in Huntingdonshire, 
t Speed s Catalogue of Religious Houses, folio 809. 
| Proverbs xxx. 8. 

R. Buckland, in Vitis Sanctarum Muliemm Anglise. p. 242. 

H 2 



100 WORTHIES OF HUNTINGTONSHIRE. 

and my story s man), an industrious antiquary,* collecteth out of 
the records of the church of Ely, that (after the resignation of 
Ralph de Holbeach) William de Whitlesey, archdeacon of Hunt- 
ington 1340, was admitted third master of Peter House in Cam 
bridge. Yet hath he left more signal testimony of his affection 
to Oxford, which he freed from the jurisdiction of the bishop 
of Lincoln, allowing the scholars leave to choose their own 

chancellor.f 

He was kinsman to Simon Islip, archbishop of Canterbury, 
who made him vicar general, dean of the arches ; and succes 
sively he was preferred bishop of Rochester, Worcester, London ; 
archbishop of Canterbury. An excellent scholar, an eloquent 
preacher ; and his last sermon most remarkable, to the Convo 
cation, on this text, " Veritas liberabit vos/ (the truth shall make 
you free. J) It seems by the story, that in his sermon he had a par 
ticular reflection on the privileges of the clergy, as exempted by 
preaching the truth from payment of taxes, save with their own 
free consent. But all would not serve their turn ; for, in the con 
temporary parliament, the clergy, unwillingly- willing, granted a 
yearly tenth to supply the pressing occasions of king Edward the 
Third. This William died anno Domini 1375. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

FRANCIS WHITE was born at St. Neot s in this county, and not 
in Lancashire, as I and others have been misinformed ; witness 
the admission book of Caius College, and the testimony of his 
brother s son,|| still alive (1661). The father to this Francis was a 
minister, and had five sons, who were divines, and two of them 
most eminent in their generation. Of these, this Francis was 
bred in Caius College, on the same token that when he was bi 
shop of Ely (and came to consecrate the chapel of Peter-House) 
he received an entertainment at that college, where with a short 
speech he encouraged the young students to ply their books by 
his own example, who, from a poor scholar in that house, by 
God s blessing on his industry, was brought to that preferment. 
By the Lord Grey of Grobie he was presented to Broughton 
Astley in Leicestershire, and thence (why should a candle be 
put under a bushel ?) he was brought to be lecturer of St. Paul s 
in London, and parson of St. Peter s in Cornhill : whence he 
was successively preferred, first dean, then bishop of Carlisle, 
after bishop of Norwich, and at last of Ely. 

He had several solemn disputations with popish priests and 
Jesuits (Father Fisher and others) ; and came off with such 
good success, that he reduced many seduced Romanists to our 

* MS. Seel. Cant, in the Masters of Peter House. 
| Antiquit. Brit. p. 254. J John viii. 32. 

By Master Holmes, his secretary, being himself deceived without intent to 
deceive. F. |! Mr. White, druggist, in Lombard Street. F. 



WRITERS. 101 

Church. He often chose Daniel Featley, D.D. his assistant in 
such disputes ; so that I may call this prelate and his doctor, 
Jonathan and his armour-bearer (being confident that the doc 
tor, if alive, would not be displeased with the comparison as any 
disparagement unto him) jointly victorious over the Romish 
Philistines. He died anno 1638, leaving some of his learned 
works to posterity. 

WRITERS. 

The candid reader is here requested to forgive and amend 
what in them is of casual transposition. 

HENRY SALTRY was born in this county,* and became a 
Cistercian monk in the monastery of Saltry, then newly founded 
by Simon Saint Liz, earl of Huntington. He was also instruct 
ed by one Florentian, an Irish bishop. He wrote a profitable 
book for his own religion in the maintenance of purgatory, 
which made him esteemed in that superstitious age. He flou 
rished anno Domini 1140. 

GREGORY of HUNTINGTON, so called from the place of his 
nativity, was bred a Benedictine monk in Ramsey, where he 
became prior, or vice-abbot,t a place which he deserved, being 
one of the most learned men of that age for his great skill in 
languages. 

For he was thorough-paced in three tongues, Latin, Greek 
(as appears by his many comments on those grammarians), and 
Hebrew, which last he learned by his constant conversing with 
the Jews in England. 

But now the fatal time did approach, wherein the Jews (full 
loath I assure you) must leave the land, and many precious 
books behind them. Our Gregory, partly by love, partly by 
the king s power, (both together will go far in driving a bargain) 
purchased many of those rarities, to dispose them in his con 
vent of Ramsey ; which, as it exceeded other English monas 
teries for a library, so for Hebrew books that monastery exceed 
ed itself. f After this Gregory had been prior of Ramsey no 
fewer than thirty-eighty ears, flourishing under king Henry -the 
Third, he died in the reign of king Edward the First, about 1280. 

HUGH of SAINT NEOT S was born in that well-known mar 
ket-town; bred a Carmelite in Hitching in Hertfordshire; hence 
he went to study in Cambridge, where, for his worth, the de 
gree of doctorship was by the university gratis (queere whether 

* J. Bale and J. Pits, de Scriptoribus Britannicis. 

f Pits, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iv. num. 22. 

I Vide infra, p. 103, Jo. YONG, in the "Writers since the Reformation." 

Pits, de Angliae Scriptoribus, in anno 1255. 



102 



WORTHIES OF HUNTINGTON8HIRE. 



without paying of fees., or keeping of acts) conferred upon him.* 
lo him Bale (though that be the best Bale which hath the least 
of Bale and most of Leland therein) giveth this testimony : 
" that,, living in the Egyptian darkness, he sought after the light 
of truth," adding, that he was " Piscis in palude, nihil trahens 
de sapore palustri," (a fish in the fens, drawing nothing of 
the mud thereof) ; which is a rarity indeed. Many his sermons : 
and he wrote a Comment on Saint Luke. He died 1340 ; and 
was buried at Hitching. 



WILLIAM RAMSEY was born in this county, famous 
richest Benedictines 5 Abbey in England ; but here he we 



for the 

j 7 .rould not 

stay, but went to Crowland, where he prospered so well that 
he became abbot thereof. He was a natural poet;t and there 
fore no wonder if faults be found in the feet of his verses ; for 
t is given to thorough-paced nags, that amble naturally, to trip 
much; whilst artificial pacers go surest on foot. He wrote the 
life of St. Guthlake, St. Neot s, St. Edmund the king, &c. : all 
in verse. 

But that which may seem a wonder indeed is this, that, being 
a poet, he paid the vast debts of others, even forty thousand 
marks,J for the engagement of his convent, and all within the 
compass of eighteen months, wherein he was abbot of Crowland. 
But it rendereth it the more credible, because it was done by 
the assistance of king Henry the Second, who, to expiate the 
blood of Becket, was contented to be melted into coin, and 
was prodigiously bountiful to some churches. Our William 
died 1180. 

HENRY of HUNTINGTON, son to one Nicholas, where born 
unknown, was first a canon of the church of Lincoln, where he 
became acquainted with one Albine of Angiers, born in France, 
but fellow canon with him of the same church. This Albine 
he afterwards in his writings modestly owned for his master, 
having gained much learning from him. 

He was afterwards chaplain to Alexander, that great bishop of 
Lincoln (magnificent unto madness), who made him archdeacon 
of _ Huntingdon, whence he took his denomination. A town 
which hath received more honour from him than ever it can 
return to him, seeing Huntingdon had never been mentioned in 
the mouths, nor passed under the pens, of so many foreigners, 
but for the worthy " History of the Saxon Kings," written by 
this Henry. Let me add, that, considering the sottishness of 
superstition in the age he lived in, he is less smooted there 
with than any of his contemporaries, arid, being a secular priest, 

Bale, de Scriptoribus Britanuicis, Cent. v. num. 29. 

Tdern, Csut. iii. num. 9. J Pits, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, anno 1 180. 

Bale, Cent. ii. num. 92; and Fits, in anno ins. 



WRITERS. 103 

doth now and then abate the pride of monastical pretended 
perfection. He flourished under king Stephen, in the year of 
our Lord 1248 ; and is probably conjectured to die about the 
year 1260. 

ROGER of ST. IVES was born at that noted town of this 
county, being omitted by Bale, but remembered by Pits* 
(though seldom sounding when the other is silent) for his acti 
vity against the Lollards and Sir John Oldcastle, against whom 
he wrote a book, flourishing in the year 1420. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

[AMP.] JOHN YONG was a monk in Ramsey Abbey at the 
dissolution thereof. Now, by the same proportion that a penny 
saved is a penny gained*, the preserver of books is a mate for the 
compiler of them. Learned Leland looks on this Yong as 
a benefactor to posterity, in that he saved many Hebrew books 
of the noble library of Ramsey. 

Say not such preserving was purloining, because those books 
belonged to the king, seeing no conscience need to scruple such 
a nicety : books (though so precious that nothing was worth 
them) being in that juncture of time counted worth nothing. 
Never such a massacre of good authors, some few only escap 
ing to bring tidings of the destruction of the rest. 

Seeing this Yong is inserted by Bale,t and omitted by Pits, 
I collect "him to savour of the Reformation. As for such who 
confound him with John Yong, many years after master of 
Pembroke Hall, they are confuted by the different dates assign 
ed unto them, this being his senior thirty years, as flourishing 
anno Domini 1520. 

JOHN WHITE, brother to Francis White bishop of Ely, was 
born at St. Neot s in this county: bred in Caius college in 
Cambridge, wherein he commenced master of arts. He did not 
continue long in the university, but the university continued 
long in him ; so that he may be said to have carried Cambridge 
with him into Lancashire (so hard and constant in his study) 
when he was presented vicar of Eccles therein. Afterwards Sir 
John Crofts, a Suffolk knight, being informed of his abilities, 
and pitying his remote living on no plentiful benefice, called 
him into the south, and was the occasion that king James took 
cognizance of his worth, making him his chaplain in ordinary. 
It was now but the third month of his attendance at court, 
when he sickened at London in Lombard street, died, and was 
buried in the church of Saint Mary Woolnoth J 1615, without 
any other monument, save what his learned works have left to 

* Anno 1420. f De Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent ix. num. 9. 

J So I am informed by his son, Mr. White, a druggist, living in Lombard 
street F. 



104 WORTHIES OF HUNTINGDONSHIRE. 

posterity, which all who have either learning, piety, or inge 
nuity do, yea must, most highly commend. 

Sir ROBERT COTTON, Knight and Baronet, son to John Cot 
ton, esquire, was born at Cunnington in this county ; descended 
by the Bruces from the blood royal of Scotland. He was bred 
in Trinity College in Cambridge ; where, when a youth, he dis 
covered his inclination to the study of antiquity (they must 
spring early who would sprout high in that knowledge) ; and 
afterwards attained to such eminency, that sure I am he had no 
superior, if any his equal, in the skill thereof. 

But that which rendered him deservedly to the praise of pre 
sent and future times, yea the wonder of our own and foreign 
nations, was his collection of his library in Westminster; 
equally famous for 1. Rarity: having so many manuscript 
originals, or else copies so exactly transcribed, that, reader, I 
must confess he must have more skill than I have to distin 
guish them. 2. Variety : he that beholdeth their number 
would admire they should be rare ; and he that considereth 
their rarity, will more admire at their number. 3. Method : some 
libraries are labyrinths, not for the multitude but confusion of 
volumes, where a stranger seeking for a book may quickly lose 
himself ; whereas these are so exactly methodised (under the 
heads of the twelve Roman emperors) that it is harder for one 
to miss than to hit any author he desireth. 

But what addeth a lustre to all the rest is, the favourable 
access thereunto, for such as bring any competency of skill with 
them, and leave thankfulness behind them. Some antiquaries 
are so jealous of their, books, as if every hand which toucheth 
would ravish them ; whereas here no such suspicion of ingenious 
persons. And here give me leave to register myself amongst 
the meanest of those who through the favour of Sir Thomas 
Cotton (inheriting as well the courtesy as estate of his father 
Sir Robert) have had admittance into that worthy treasury. 

Yea, most true it is what one saith, that the grandest anti 
quaries have here fetched their materials : 

Omnis ab illo 
Et Camdene lua, et Seldini gloria crevit. 

" Camden to him, to him doth Selden, owe 

Their glory : what they got from him did grow."" 

I have heard that there was a design driven on in the Pope s 
conclave, after the death of Sir Robert, to compass this library 
to be added to that in Rome ; which, if so, what a Vatican had 
there been within the Vatican, by the accession thereof ! but, 
blessed be God, the project did miscarry, to the honour of 
our nation, .and advantage of the Protestant religion. For 
therein are contained many privities of princes and transactions 

* "Weaver s Funeral Monuments, in the P face. 



WRITERS. 105 

of state ; insomuch that I have been informed, that the 
fountains have been fain to fetch water from the stream ; and 
the secretaries of state, and clerks of the council, glad from 
hence to borrow back again many originals, which, being lost 
by casualty or negligence of officers, have here been recovered 
and preserved. He was a man of a public spirit, it being his 
principal endeavour in all parliaments (wherein he served so 
often) [that the prerogative and privilege might run in their 
due channel ; and in truth he did cleave the pin betwixt the 
sovereign and the subject. He was wont to say, "That he him 
self had the least share in himself;" whilst his country and 
friends had the greatest interest in him. He died at his house 
in Westminster, May the 6th, anno Domini 1631, in the 61st 
year of his age ; though one may truly say, his age was adequate 
to the continuance of the creation ; such was his exact skill in 
all antiquity. By Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of William 
Brocas, esquire, he had only one son, Sir Thomas, now living, 
(1661), who, by Margaret, daughter to the Lord William 
Howard (grandchild to Thomas duke of Norfolk) hath one son, 
John Cotton, esquire, and two daughters, Lucie and Francis. 
The " Opera Posthuma " of this worthy knight are lately set 
forth in one volume, to the great profit of posterity. 

STEPHEN MARSHALL was born at Godmanchester in this 
county, and bred a bachelor of arts in Emanuel College in 
Cambridge. Thence he went very early a reaper in God s har 
vest, yet not before he had well sharpened his sickle for that 
service. He became minister at Finchfield in Essex ; and, after 
many years discontinuance, came up to Cambridge to take the 
degree of bachelor of divinity, where he performed his exercise 
with general applause. 

In the late long lasting parliament, no man was more gracious 
with the principal members thereof. He was their trumpet, by 
whom they sounded their solemn fasts, preaching more public 
sermons on that occasion, than any four of his function. In 
their sickness he was their confessor ; in their assembly their 
counsellor ; in their treaties their chaplain ; in their disputations 
their champion. 

He was of so supple a soul, that he brake not a joint, yea, 
sprained not a sinew, in all the alteration of times ; and his 
friends put all on the account, not of his inconstancy but pru 
dence, who in his own practice, as they conceive, reconciled the 
various lections of St. PaulVprecept, " serving the lord, and the 
times."* 

And although some severely censure him for deserting his 
principles, yet he is said on his death-bed to have given full 
satisfaction to such who formerly suspected his sincerity to the 

* Rom. xii. 11. TU> Kvpiw TW xxtpt 



106 WORTHIES OF HUNTINGDONSHIRE. 

presbyterian discipline, dying anno Domini 1655. He was so 
lemnly buried in the abbey at Westminster. 

ROMISH EXILE WRITERS. 

RICHARD BROUGHTON was born at Great Stukeley in this 
county ;* bred at Rheims in France, where he received the order 
of priesthood ; and was sent over into England for the propo- 
gation of his party. Here he gave so signal testimony and fide 
lity to the cause, that he was, before many others, preferred as 
sistant to the English arch-priest.f 

He wrote many books : and is most esteemed by those of his 
own religion for his " English Ecclesiastical History, from the 
first planting of the Gospel, to the coming in of the Saxons." 
But, in plain truth, there is little milk, no cream, and almost all 
whey therein, being farced with legendary stuff, taken from au 
thors, some of condemned, most of suspected credit. If by the 
Levitical law " a bastard should not enter into the congregation 
of the Lord (understand it, to bear office therein) to the tenth 
generation/ ! it is pity that adulterated authors, being an ille 
gitimate off-spring, should be admitted- to bear rule in church 
history. This Broughton was living in the latter end of the 
reign of king James. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

AMBROSE (son to John) NICHOLAS was born at Needenworth 
in this county, whence he went to London, and was bound ap 
prentice to a salter, thriving so well in his trade, that, anno 
1576, he became lord mayor of London. He founded twelve 
alms-houses in Mungwel-street in that city, endowing them with 
competent maintainance. 

Sir WOLSTAN (son to Thomas) DIXIE was born at Catworth 
in this county, bred a Skinner in London, whereof he became 
lord mayor anno 1585. He was a man made up of deeds of 
charity, the particulars whereof are too long to recite. He gave 
600 pounds to Emanuel College in Cambridge, to the founding 
of a fellowship ; erected a free-school at Bosworth in Leices 
tershire, and endowed it ; where his family flourish at this day 
in a worshipful estate. 

RICHARD FISHBOURN was born in the town of Huntingdon ; 
cut out of no mean quarry, being a gentleman by his extraction. 
Leaving a court-life (as more pleasant than profitable) he be 
came servant to Sir Baptist Hickes, afterwards Yiscount Camp- 
den, and, by God s blessing on his industry, attained a great es 
tate ; whereof he gave two thousand pounds for the buying put 
of impropriations in the northern parts, and settling a preaching 

* In the Preface of his Church History. f Pits, de Scriptoribus Anglite, p 815. 
J Deut. xxiii. 2. Reckoned by Mr. Stow in his Survey of London. 



BENEFACTORS MEMORABLE PERSONS. 107 

ministry, where most want thereof ; he bequeathed as much to 
the company of Mercers, whereof he was free ; and the same 
sum to Huntingdon, the place of his nativity ; with one thou 
sand marks to Christ Church Hospital, The whole sum of his 
benefactions amounted to ten thousand seven hundred pounds 
and upwards, briefly summed up in his funeral sermon, com 
monly called " Corona Charitatis," preached by Master Nathaniel 
Shute, wherein, to use his expression, "he supped up many 
things with a very short breath, contracting his deeds of cha 
rity to avoid tediousness. 

Nor must it be forgotten how this gentleman lying on his 
death-bed (when men are presumed to speak with unmasked 
consciences), did profess that, to his knowledge, "he had got no 
part of his goods unjustly." No man of his quality won more 
love in health, prayers in sickness, and lamentation at his fu 
neral; dying a single man, and buried in Mercers Chapel, May 
the 10th, 1625. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

Sir OLIVER CROMWELL, Knight, son of Sir Henry Cromwell, 
Knight, of Hinchingbrooke, in this county, is remarkable to pos 
terity on a four-fold account. First, for his hospitality and pro 
digious entertainment of king James and his court. Secondly, 
for his upright dealing in bargain and sale with all chapmen ; so 
that no man whosoever purchased land of him was put to charge 
of three-pence to make good his title. Yet he sold excellent 
pennyworths ; insomuch that Sir John Leamon (once lord mayor 
of London), who bought the fair manor of Warboise in this 
county of him, affirmed, " that it was the cheapest land that 
ever he bought ; and yet the dearest that ever Sir Oliver Crom 
well sold." Thirdly, for his loyalty ; always beholding the usurp 
ation and tyranny of his nephew, godson, and namesake, with 
hatred and contempt. Lastly, for his vivacity, who survived to 
be the oldest gentleman in England who was a knight ; though 
not the oldest knight who was a gentleman ; seeing Sir George 
Dalston, younger in years (yet still alive), was knighted some 
days before him. Sir Oliver died anno Domini 1654. 

THE NAMES OF THE GENTRY IN THIS SHIRE, 

RETURNED BY THE COMMISSIONERS IN THE TWKLFTH YEAR OF KING 
HENKY THE SIXTH, 1433. 

William Bishop of Lincoln, and John de Tiptofte, chevalier ; 
Roger Hunt, and William W r aton, (knights for the shire) ; 
C ommissioners. 

Abbatis de Ramsey. Rectoris de Somerham, pre- 

Abbatis de Sautrey. bendarii ecclesiee Lincolni- 

Prioris de Huntington. ensis. 

Prioris de S. Neoto. Domini de Leighton, rectoris 

Prioris de Stonle. ecclesiee de Bluntesham. 

Archidiaconi Eliensis. Yicarii ecclesiee de Gurmecest. 



108 



WORTHIES OP HUNTINGDONSHIRE. 



Vicarii ecclesise de S. Neoto. 
Rect. ecclesiee de Ript. Ab- 

batis . 

Nicholai Stivecle, militis. 
Robert! Stonham, armigeri. 
Everardi Pigby, armigeri. 
Radulphi Stivecle, arraigeri. 
Thomee Devyll, armigeri. 
Thomoe Nesenham 3 armigeri. 
Henrici Hethe. 

Johannis Bayons, armigeri. 
Rogeri Lowthe. 
Edwardi Parker. 
Walteri Taillard. 
Johannis Eyr. 
Johannis Bekeswell. 
Willielmi Castell. 
Willielmi Waldesheefe. 

Thomee Freman. 

Johannis Donold. 

Walteri Mayll. 

Roberti Boteler de Alyngton. 

Roberti Boteler de Hilton. 

Johannis Kirkeby. 

Johannis Sankyn. 

Roberti Langton. 

Reginald! Rokesden. 

Johannis Pulter. 

Roberti Wene. 

Joh. Sampson de Somersh. 

Thomee Clerevax. 

Radulphi Pakynton. 

Willielmi Est. 

Richardi Est. 

Roberti Creweker. 

Willielmi Maister. 

Johannis Morys. 

Willielmi Druell de Weresle. 

Radulphi Joce. 

Johan. Devyll de Chescerton. 

Johannis Cokerham. 

Richardi Basingham. 



Will. Judde de Sancto Ivone. 

Willielmi Wassingle. 

Willielmi Wardale. 

Willielmi Colles. 

Laurentii Merton. 

Thomee Judde. 

Willielmi Boteler de Ramsey. 

Thomee Barboure de eadem. 

Thomas Rede. 

Thomee Irlle. 

Willielmi Holland. 

Will. Smith de Alcumbury. 

Will. Hay ward de Buckworth. 

Richardi Boton. 

Johannis Cross, senioris. 

Edmundi Fairstede. 

Willielmi Eryth. 

Will. Skinner de Brampton. 

Willielmi West. 

Thomee Daniel. 

Willielmi Daniel. 

Johannis Barbour. 

Thomee Parker de S. Neoto. 

Edm. Faillour de Kymbolton. 

Thomee Bowelas. 

Willielmi Peete. 

Willielmi Talers, 

Thomee Aungevin. 

Walteri Godegamen. 

Johannis Cage. 

Johannis Manypeny. 

Johannis Copgray, clerici. 

Willielmi Arneburgh. 

Henrici Attehill. 

Johannis Charwalton. 

Edmundi Ulfe. 

Willielmi Hare. 

Johannis Dare. 

Willielmi Sturdivale. 

Richardi Brigge. 

Mich. Carleton ballivi ejus- 
dem ville Huntington. 



J. VA\_/ L J. t* JL VAJ. -* **-*J A* -*i ii"! 

J. Cokeyn Parker de Kimbol- Georgii Giddyng. 



ton. 

Richardi Burgham. 
Richardi Parker de Bukden. 
Thomee Alcumbury. 
Willielmi Boteler de Weresle. 

I meet with this uncomfortable passage in Mr. Speed s (or 
rather in Sir Robert Cotton s) description of this shire : 



Johannis Chikson. 
Johannis Pecke. 
Thomee Charwalton. 
Johannis Abbotesle. 



SHERIFFS THE FAREWELL. 109 

" Thus as this city, so the old families have been here with 
time out worn, few only (of the many former) now remaining, 
whose surnames before the reign of the last Henry were in this 
shire of any eminency." 

Let others render a reason why the ancient families in this 
county (more in the proportion than elsewhere) are so decayed. 
This seemeth a probable cause why many new ones are seated 
herein; because Huntingdonshire being generally abbey-land (as 
is aforesaid), after the Dissolution many new purchasers planted 
themselves therein. 

SHERIFFS OF THIS SHIRE ALONE. 
KING CHARLES. 

Anno Name and Arms. Place. 

12 Tho. Cotton, bart. . . Cunnington. 

Az. an eagle displayed Arg. 

13 Joh. He wet, bart. . . Waresly. 

S. a chevron counter-battelee between three owls Arg. 

14 Tho. Lake, knt. . . . Stoughton. 

S. a bend betwixt six cross crosslets fitchee Arg. 

15 Will. Armyn, arm. . . Orton. 

Erm. a saltire engrailed G. on a chief of the second a lion 
passant O. 

16 Will Leman .... Warbois. 

Az. a fess between three dolphins Arg. 

17 Rich. Stone, mil. . . . Stukeley. 

Arg. three cinquefoils S. a chief Az. 

Cambridgeshire and this county may pass for the emblem of 
man and wife, who have long lived lovingly together, till at last, 
upon some small disgust, they part bed and board, and live 
asunder. Even from the time of king Henry the Second these 
two shires were united under one sheriff,* (as originally they had 
one earl, of the royal blood of Scotland,) till in the twelfth of 
king Charles (on what mutual distaste I know not) they were 
divided. 

But the best part of the emblem is still behind. As such 
separated persons do, on second thoughts, sometimes return 
together again, as most for their comfort, convenience, credit, 
and conscience ; so these two counties (after six years division) 
have been re-united under the same sheriff; and so continue to 
this day (1660). 

THE FAREWELL, 

Much of this county s profit depends on the northern road 
crossing the body thereof from Godmanchester to Wainsford 

* Camden s Britannia, in Cambridgeshire. 



110 WORTHIES S1XCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 

Bridge ; a road which in the winter is the ready way, leading not 
only to trouble but danger ; insomuch that here it comes to pass 
(what war caused in the days of Shamgar), " The highways are 
unemployed, and travellers walk through byways," to the present 
prejudice and future undoing of all ancient stages. And indeed 
though Stif-clay (commonly called Stukeley) be the name of 
one or two villages in the midst, yet their nature is extensive all 
over the county, consisting of a deep clay, giving much annoy 
ance to passengers. May a mean man s motion be heard ? Let 
the repairing or bad places in that highway (which is now the 
parish) be made the county charge, whereby the burden will be 
come the less (borne by more backs), and the benefit the more, 
when the ways thereby shall effectually be mended and main 
tained. 



WORTHIES OF HUNTINGDONSHIRE WHO HAVE FLOURISHED 
SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 

Henry CROMWELL, son of Oliver, lord deputy of Ireland ; born 

at Huntingdon 1628; died 1674. 
Richard CROMWELL, eldest son of Oliver, and successor to the 

Protectorate, which he resigned to facilitate the restoration of 

Charles II.; born at Huntingdon 1626; died 1712. 
John MAPLETOFT, physician, scholar, and divine ; born at Mar- 
^ garet Inge 1631; died 1721. 
Samuel PEPYS, secretary to the Admiralty, president of the 

Royal Society, and author of an amusing (i Diary ; " born at 

Bampton; died 1703. 
Samuel Jackson PRATT, novellist, poet, dramatist, and author of 

" Gleanings, or Travels Abroad and in England ;" born at St. 

Ives 1749; died 1814. 



*** There has been nothing like a regular history of this little county, beyond 
what appears in the Magna Britannia and the Beauties of England. In 1820, how 
ever, the Rev. G. C. Gorham published the History of Eynesbury and St. Neot s ; 
and in 1831 Mr. Robert Fox produced the History of Godmanchester, There is 
also extant a History of Somersham. ED. 



KENT. 



, in the Saxon Heptarchy, was an entire kingdom by 
itself, an honour which no other sole county attained unto. It 
hath the Thames on the north, the sea on the east and south, 
Sussex and Surrey on the west. From east to west it expa- 
tiateth itself into fifty-three miles : but from north to south 
expandeth not above twenty-six miles. It differeth not more 
from other shires than from itself ; such the variety thereof. In 
some parts of it, health and w r ealth are at many miles distance ; 
which in other parts are reconciled to live under the same roof; 
I mean, abide in one place together. Nor is the wonder great, 
if places differ so much which lie in this shire far asunder, when 
I have read * that there is a farm within a mile of Gravesend, 
where the cattle, always drinking at one common pond in the 
yard, if they graze on one side of the house the butter is yellow, 
sweet, and good ; but if on the other, white, sourish, and 
naught. Yet needeth there no CEdipus to unriddle the same, 
seeing one side lieth on the chalk, and hath much trefoil ; the 
other on the gravel, abounding only with couch grass. 

A considerable part of this county is called The Weald ; that 
is, a woodland ground, the inhabitants whereof are called the 
Wealdish men. And here, reader, I humbly submit a small 
criticism of mine to thy censure. I read in Master Speed,t in 
Wyaf s rebellion, how Sir Henry Isley and the two Knevets 
conducted five hundred Welchmen into Rochester. I much ad 
mire how so many Cambro-Britons should straggle into Kent ; 
the rather because that rising was peculiar to that county alone ; 
since I conceive these Welchmen should be Wealdishmen, viz. 
such who had their habitation in the woody side of this shire. J 
However, the goodness of the soil generally may be guessed 
from the greatness of the Kentish breed, where both the cattle 

Hartlib s Legacy, p. 170. 
f In his Chronicle, page 845, paragraph 30. 

j Hasted has given an interesting account of the Clothing Trade formerly carried 
on in the Weald, and also some notices of the families raised by that trade ED.* 



* Many of the Editorial notes given in this County are the contributions of Sir Egerton 
Brydges, late of Lee I riory near Canterbury. 



112 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

and the poultry are allowed the largest of the land. A giant 
ox, fed in Romney Marsh, was some six years since to be seen 
in London, so high, that one of ordinary stature could hardly 
reach to the top of his back. 

Here let me observe a slip of the pen in industrious Master 
Speed. <e The air/ saith he, " of Kent, is both wholesome and 
temperate " (which is confessed most true, but mark what fol- 
loweth,) " as seated nearest to the Equinoctial, and farthest from 
the northern pole." But let his own general map be appealed 
to as judge, being therein both true and impartial, and it will 
appear that some part of Devonshire lieth south of Kent well 
nigh a whole degree, or threescore miles. Thus we see other 
men s, other men see our mistakes ; so necessary is mutual 
candour and charity, because he who forgiveth to-day may 
have need to be forgiven to-morrow. And yet I deny not but 
that Kent of all English counties is nearest to France; not 
because southernmost, but because the sea interposed is there 
the narrowest. 

NATURAL COMMODITIES. 
CHERRIES. 

These were fetched out of Flanders, and first planted in this 
county by king Henry the Eighth, in whose time they spread 
into thirty-two parishes ; and were sold at great rates. I have 
read that one of the orchards of this primitive plantation, con 
sisting but of thirty acres, produced fruit of one year sold for 
one thousand pounds ;* plenty, it seems, of cherries in that gar 
den, meeting with a scarcity of them in all other places. 

No English fruit is dearer than those at first, cheaper at last, 
pleasanter at all times ; nor is it less wholesome than delicious. 
And it is much that of so many feeding so freely on them, so 
few are found to surfeit. Their several sorts do ripen so suc 
cessively, that they continue in season well nigh a quarter of a 
year. It is incredible how many cherries one tree in this 
county did bear in a plentiful year ; I mean not how many 
pound (being the fruit of other trees) have been weighed there 
on (the common fallacy of the word bear amongst the country 
folk), but simply how many did naturally grow thereupon. 

We leave the wholesomeness of this fruit, both for food and 
physic, to be praised by others, having hitherto not met with 
any discommending it. As for the outlandish proverb, " He 
that eateth cherries with noblemen, shall have his eyes spurted 
out with the stones," it fixeth no fault in the fruit ; the expres 
sion being merely metaphorical, wherein the folly of such is 
taxed, who associate themselves equal in expence with others in 
higher dignity and estate, till they be losers at last, and well 
laughed at for their pains. 

* Hartlib s Legacy, p. 15. 



NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. 113 



SAINT-FOIN. 

Saint-foin, or Holy-hay. Superstition may seem in the 
name ; but I assure you there is nothing but good husbandry 
in the sowing thereof, as being found to be a great fertilizer of 
barren ground. It is otherwise called pohjgala, which I may 
English much milk, as causing the cattle to give abundance 
thereof. Some call it the small clover grass, and it prospereth 
best in the worst ground. 

It was first fetched out of France from about Paris, and since 
is sown in divers places in England, but especially in Cobham 
park in this county, where it thriveth extraordinary well on 
dry chalky banks, where nothing else will grow. If it pros- 
psreth not equally in other dry places, it is justly to be imputed 
to some error in the managing thereof; as, that the ground was 
not well prepared, or made fine enough ; that the seed was too 
sparing, or else old and decayed ; that cattle cropt it in the 
first year, &c, It will last but seven years, by which time the 
native grass of England will prevail over this foreigner, if it be 
not sown again. 

TROUTS. 

We have treated of this fish before :* and confess this repeti 
tion had been a breach of the fundamental laws promised to 
this book, were it not also an addition ; Kent affording trouts, 
at a town called Fordwich,f nigh Canterbury, differing from all 
others in many considerables : 

1. Greatness; many of them being in bigness near to a sal 
mon. 2. Colour ; cutting white (as others do red) when best 
in season. 3. Cunning; only one of them being ever caught 
with an angle ; f whereas other trouts are easily tickled into 
taking, and flattered into their destruction. 4. Abode ; remain 
ing nine months in the sea, and three in the fresh water. They 
observe their coming up thereinto almost to a day ; and the men 
of Forditch observe them as exactly, whom they catch with 
nets, and other devices. 



WELD, Or WOLD. 



Know, reader, that I borrow my orthography hereof (if it be 
so) from the dyers themselves. This is a little seed, sown in this 
county some forty years since (when first it was brought into 
England) with barley, the growth whereof it doth not hinder in 
any degree ; for when the barley is mowed down in harvest, 
then this Weld, or Wold, first peeps out of the earth, where it 
groweth till the May following, when it is gathered ; and thus 

In Berkshire. 

f Hasted speaks of the Littlebonrne trout (a parish through which the Nail- 
bourne, or lesser Stour, runs in its course to the Stour) as distinct from the Ford- 
wich trout ED. 

% By Sir George Hastings. Mr. Walton, in his Complete Angler, p. 94. 

VOL. n. i 



114 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

husbandmen with one sowing reap two crops; yet so as it 
taketh up their ground for two years. 

The use hereof is for the dying of the best yellow. It hath 
sometimes been so low as at four pounds a load (which con- 
taineth fifteen hundred weight) ; and sometimes so dear that it 
was worth fifteen pounds ; betwixt which prices it hath its con 
stant motion ; and now is in the equator betwixt both, worth 
seven pounds ten shillings. It was first sown in this county, 
and since in Norfolk and in other places. 

MADDER. 

This is very useful for dyers, for making of reds and violets. 
It is a weed whose root only is useful for dying (whilst the 
leaves only of woad are serviceable for that purpose) ; and there 
are three kinds thereof: 1. Crop-Madder, worth betwixt 4 
and 5 the hundred: 2. Umber-Owe, worth betwixt 3 and 
4 : 3. Pipe, or Fat Madder, worth about l. 10s. 

Some two years since, this was sown by Sir Nicholas Crisp 
at Deptford, and I hope will have good success ; first, because 
it groweth in Zealand in the same (if not a more northern) lati 
tude ; secondly, because wild madder grows here in abundance ; 
and why may not tame madder, if cicurated by art ? lastly, 
because as good as any grew some thirty years since at Barn- 
Elms in Surrey, though it quit not cost, through some error in 
the first planter thereof, which now, we hope, will be rectified. 

FLAX. 

I am informed, by such who should know, that no county in 
England sends better or more to London ; yet doth not our 
whole land afford the tenth part of what is spent therein ; 
so that we are fain to fetch it from Flanders, France, yea, as 
far as Egypt itself. It may seem strange, that our soil, kindly 
for that seed, the use whereof and profit hereby so great, yet so 
little care is taken for the planting thereof, which, well hus 
banded, would find linen for the rich and living for the poor. 
Many would never be indicted spinsters, were they spinsters 
indeed ; nor some to so public and shameful punishments, if 
painfully employed in that vocation. 

When a spider is found upon our clothes, we use to say, 
" Some money is coming towards us." The moral is this, such 
who imitate the industry of that contemptible creature, " which 
taketh hold with her hands, and is in king s palaces,"* may, by 
God s blessing, weave themselves into wealth, and procure a 
plentiful estate. 

MANUFACTURES. 

Though CLOTHING (whereof we have spoken before) be dif 
fused through many shires of England, yet is it as vigorously 

* Prov. xxx. 28. 



MANUFACTURES BUILDINGS "WONDERS. 115 

applied here as in any other place ; and Kentish cloth at the 
present keepeth up the credit thereof as high as ever before. 

THREAD. 

I place this the last, because the least of manufactures ; 
thread being counted a thing so inconsiderable : Abraham said 
to the king of Sodom, t( that he would take nothing, from a 
thread to a shoe-latchet ;" * that is, nothing at all. It seems 
this Hebrew proverb surrounded the universe, beginning at a 
thread, a contemptible thing, and, after the encircling of all 
things more precious, ended where it begun, at a shoe-latchet, 
as mean as thread in valuation. 

But, though one thread be little worth, many together prove 
useful and profitable ; and some thousands of pounds are sent 
yearly over out of England to buy that commodity. My 
author telleth me, that thread is only made (I understand him 
out of London) at Maidstone in this county, where well nigh a 
hundred hands are employed about it.f I believe a thousand 
might be occupied in the same work, and many idle women, 
who now only spin street thread (going tattling about with tales) 
might procure, if set at work, a comfortable livelihood thereby. 

THE BUILDINGS. 

The cathedral of Rochester is low, and little proportional to 
the revenues thereof. Yet hath it (though no magnificence) 
a venerable aspect of antiquity therein. 

The king hath (besides other) three fair palaces in this shire : 
Greenwich, with a pleasant medley prospect of city, country, 
water, and land ; Eltham, not altogether so wholesome ; and 
Otford, which archbishop Warham did so enlarge and adorn 
with building, that Cranmer, his successor, was in some sort 
forced to exchange it with king Henry the Eighth on no 
gainful conditions,:]: to lesson the clergy to content themselves 
with decency without sumptuousness, lest it awaken envy, and 
in fine they prove losers thereby. 

COBHAM, the house of the late duke of Richmond ; and 
the fair mansion of Sir Edward Hales, baronet (adequate to his 
large estate) when finished, will carry away the credit from all 
the buildings in this county. 

THE WONDERS. 

A marvellous accident happened August 4, 1585, in the ham 
let of Mottingham (pertaining to Eltham in this county) in a 
field which belongeth to Sir Per ci val Hart. || Betimes in the 

* Gen. xiv. 23. f Hartlib, in his Legacy, p. 32. J Cam. Brit, in Kent. 

Cobham, the residence of Lord Darnley, is still in splendour ; but Sir Edward 
Hales s (Tunstal) is long gone Ed. II Villare Cantianum, p. 13< 

I 2 



116 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

morning the ground began to sink, so much that three great elm- 
trees were suddenly swallowed into the pit ; the tops falling 
downward into the hole ; and before ten of the clock they were 
so overwhelmed, that no part of them might be discerned, the 
concave being suddenly filled with water. The compass of the 
hole was about eighty yards, and so profound, that a sounding 
line of fifty fathoms could hardly find or feel any bottom. Ten 
yards distance from that place there was another piece of ground 
sunk in like manner near the highway, and so nigh a dwelling 
house, that the inhabitants were greatly terrified therewith. 

THE NAVY ROYAL. 

It may be justly accounted a Wonder of Art. And know, 
the ships are properly here handled, because the most, best, 
and biggest of them have their birth (built at Woolwich) and 
winter abode nigh Chatham in the river of Medway in this 
county. Indeed, before the reign of queen Elizabeth, the ships 
royal were so few, they deserved not the name of a fleet ; when 
our kings hired vessels from Hamborough, Lubeck, yea Genoa 
itself. But such who, instead of their own servants, use chair- 
folk in their houses, shall find their work worse done, and yet 
pay dearer for it. 

Queen Elizabeth, sensible of this mischief, erected a navy 
royal (continued and increased by her successors) of the best 
ships Europe ever beheld. Indeed much is in the matter, the 
excellency of our English oak ; more in the making, the cun 
ning of our shipwrights ; most in the manning, the courage of 
our seamen ; and yet all to God s blessing, who so often hath 
crowned them with success. 

If that man who hath versatile ingenium be thereby much 
advantaged for the working of his own fortune, our ships, so 
active to turn and wind at pleasure, must needs be more useful 
than the Spanish galleons, whose unwieldiness fixeth them al 
most in one posture, and maketh them the steadier marks for 
their enemies. As for Flemish bottoms, though they are finer 
builc, yet as the slender barbe is not so fit to charge with, they 
are found not so useful in fight. The great sovereign, built at 
Woolwich, a lieger-ship for state, is the greatest ship our island 
ever saw. But great medals are made for some grand solem 
nity, whilst lesser coin are more current and passable in pay 
ment. 

I am credibly informed, that that mystery of shipwrights, for 
some descents, hath been preserved successively in families, of 
whom the pets about Chatham are of singular regard. " Good 
success have they with their skill ;" and carefully keep so pre 
cious a pearl, lest otherwise amongst many friends some foes at 
tain unto it ! It is no monopoly which concealeth that from 
common enemies, the concealing whereof is for the common 



WONDERS THE NAVY ROYAL. 117 

good. May this mystery of ship-making in England never be 
lost, till this floating world be arrived at its own haven, the end 
and dissolution thereof ! 

I know what will be objected by foreigners, to take off the 
lustre of our navy royal ; viz. that, though the model of bur great 
ships primitively were our own, yet we fetched the first mould 
and pattern of our frigates from the Dunkirks, when in the 
days of the duke of Buckingham (then admiral) we took some 
frigates from them, two of which still survive in his majesty s 
navy, by the name of The Providence, and Expedition. 

All this is confessed; and honest men may lawfully learn 
something from thieves for their own better defence. But it is 
added, we have improved our patterns, and the transcript doth 
at this day exceed the original. Witness some of the swiftest 
Dunkirks and Ostenders, whose wings in a fair flight havefailed 
them, overtaken by our frigates, and they still remain the mo 
numents thereof in our navy. 

Not to disgrace our neighbouring nations, but vindicate our 
selves, in these nine following particulars the navy royal ex 
ceeds all kingdoms and states in Europe : 

1 . Swift Sailing ; which will appear by a comparative induction 

of all other nations. 

First, for the Portugal, his carvils and caracts, whereof few 
now remain (the charges of maintaining them far exceeding the 
profit they bring in) ; they were the veriest drones on the sea, 
the rather because formerly their ceiling was dammed up with 
a certain kind of mortar to dead the shot, a fashion now by 
them disused. 

The French (how dextrous soever in land battles) are left- 
handed in sea fights, whose best ships are of Dutch building. 

The Dutch build their ships so floaty and buoyant, they have 
little hold in the water in comparison of ours, which keep the 
better wind, and so outsail them. 

The Spanish pride hath infected their ships with loftiness, 
which makes them but the fairer marks to our shot. 

Besides, the wind hath so much power of them in bad wea 
ther, so that it drives them two leagues for one of ours to the 
leeward, which is very dangerous upon a lee shore. 

Indeed the Turkish frigates, especially some thirty-six of 
Algiers, formed and built much near the English mode, and 
manned by renegadoes, many of them English, being already 
too nimble-heeled for the Dutch, may hereafter prove mischiev 
ous to us, if not seasonably prevented. 

2. Strength. 

I confine this only to the timber whereof they are made, our 
English oak being the best in the world. True it is (to our 
shame and sorrow be it written and read) the Dutch of late 



118 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

have built them some ships of English oak, which (through the 
negligence or covetousness of some great ones) was bought here 
and transported hence. But the best is, that, as Bishop Lati- 
mer once said to one who had preached his sermon, that he had 
gotten his fiddlestick but not his rosin, so the Hollanders with 
our timber did not buy also our art of ship-building. 

Now the ships of other countries are generally made of fir 
and other such slight wood ; whereby it cometh to pass, that, 
as in the battle in the forest of Ephraim (wherein Absolomwas 
slain), " the wood devoured more people that day than the 
sword,"* the splinters of so brittle timber kill more than the 
shot in a sea-fight. 

3. Comeliness. 

Our frigates are built so neat and snug, made long and low ; 
so that (as the make of some women s bodies handsomely con- 
cealeth their pregnancy or great belly) their contrivance hideth 
their bigness without suspicion, the enemy not expecting thirty, 
when (to his cost) he hath found sixty pieces of ordnance in 
them. Our masts stand generally very upright ; whereas those 
of the Spaniards hang over their poop, as if they were ready 
to drop by the board ; their decks are unequal, having many 
risings and fallings, whereas ours are even. Their ports some 
higher in a tier than others, ours drawn upon an equal line. 
Their cables bad (besides subject to rot in these countries) be 
cause bought at the second hand ; whereas we make our best 
markets, fetching our cordage from the fountain thereof. 

4. Force. 

Beside j the strength inherent in the structure (whereof be 
fore), this is accessary, consisting in the weight and number of 
their guns ; those of the 

Sixth ^ f 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20,^ 

Fifth / V 22, 26, 28, 30, I n , 

Fourth I Rates > >38 40 44 48 50, C Ordnance 
Third ( Carr ? m S 150^54,56,60, ( mounted - 

Second) ^60,64,70, J 

The Royal Sovereign, being one of the first rates, when she 
is fitted for the seas, carrieth one hundred and four pieces of 
ordnance mounted. 

5. Seamen. 

Courageous and skilful. For the first, we remember the pro 
verb of Solomon : " Let another praise thee, not thy own mouth ; 
a stranger, not thy own lips."f The Spaniards with sad shrug, 
and Dutch with a sorrowful shaking of their heads, give a tacit 
assent hereunto. 

* 2 Samuel xviii. 8. f Proverbs xxvii. 2. 



THE XAVY ROYAL. 119 

Skilful. Indeed navigation is much improved, especially 
since Saint Paul s time ; insomuch that, when a man goes 
bunglingly about any work in a ship, I have heard our English 
men say, " Such a man is one of St. Paul s mariners." For 
though, no doubt, they were as ingenious as any in that age 
to decline a tempest,* yet modern experience affords fairer 
fences against foul weather. 

6. Advantageous Weapons. 

Besides guns of all sorts and sizes, from the pistol to whole 
cannon, they have round-double-head-bur-spike-crow-bar-case- 
chain-shot. I join them together, because (though different 
instruments of death) they all concur in doing execution. If 
they be wind-ward of a ship, they have arrows made to shoot 
out of a bow with fire-works at the end, which, if striking unto 
the enemy s sails, will stick there, and fire them and the ship. 
If they lie board and board, they throw hand-grenades with 
stink-pots into the ship ; which make so noisome a smell, that 
the enemy is forced to thrust their heads out of the ports for 
air. 

7. Provision. 

1. Wholesome our English beef and pork, keeping sweet and 
sound longer than any flesh of other countries ; even twenty- six 
months, to the East and West Indies. 

2. More plentiful than any prince or state in all Europe 
alloweth ; the seamen having two beef, two pork, and three 
fish-days. Besides, every seaman is always well stored with 
hooks to catch fish, with which our seas do abound ; insomuch 
that many times six will diet on four men s allowance, and 
so save the rest therewith to buy fresh meat, when landing 
where it may be procured. I speak not this that hereafter 
their allowance from the king should be less, but that their 
loyalty to him, and thankfulness to God, may be the more. 

8. Accommodation. 

Every one of his majesty s ships and frigate officers have a 
distinct cabin for themselves ; for which the Dutch, French, and 
Portuguese do envy them, who for the most part lie sub dio 
under decks. 

9. Government. 

Few offences comparatively to other fleets are therein com 
mitted, and fewer escape punishment. The offender, if the 
fault be small, is tried by a court-martial, consisting of the 
officers of the ship ; if great, by a council of war, wherein only 
commanders and the judge-advocate. If any sleep in their 
watches, it is pain of death. After eight o clock none, save the 
captain, lieutenant, and master, may presume to burn a candle. 

* Acts xx vi 



120 



WORTHIES OF KENT. 



No smoking of tobacco (save for the privilege aforesaid) at any 
time, but in one particular place of the ship, and that over a tub 
of water. Preaching they have lately had twice a week ; pray 
ing twice a day ; but my intelligencer could never hear that the 
Lord s Supper for some years was administered aboard of any 
ship ; an omission which I hope hereafter will be amended. 

But never did this navy appear more triumphant, than when 
in May last it brought over our gracious sovereign, being 
almost becalmed (such the fear of the winds to offend with over 
roughness) ; the prognostic of his majesty s peaceable reign. 

The Farewell. 

Being to take our leave of these our wooden walls ; first, I 
wish that they may conquer with their mast and sails, without 
their guns ; that their very appearance may fright their foes into 
submission. 

But if, in point of honour or safety, they be necessitated to 
engage, may they always keep the wind of the enemy, that their 
shot may fly with the greater force, and that the smoke of their 
powder, pursuing the foe, may drive him to fire at hazard! 
May their gunner be in all places of the ship, to see where he 
can make a shot with the best advantage ; their carpenter and 
his crew be always in the hold, presently to drive in a wooden 
plug (whereas a shot comes betwixt wind and water), and to 
clap a board with tar and camel s hair upon it till the dispute 
be over; their chirurgeon and his assistants be in the same 
place (out of danger of shot) to dress the wounded; their cap 
tain be in the uppermost, the lieutenant in every part of the 
ship, to encourage the seamen : the chaplain at his devotions, 
to importune heaven for success, and encouraging all by his 
good council, if time will permit ! 

MEDICINAL WATERS. 
TUNBRIDGE-WATER. 

It is usual for Providence, when intending a benefit to man 
kind, to send some signal chance on the errand, to bring the 
first tidings thereof; most visible in the news of medicinal 
waters. 

The first discovery of this water (though variously reported) 
is believed from a footman to a Dutch lord, who passed this 
way, and drinking thereof found it in taste very like to that 
at the Spa in Germany. 

Indeed, there is a great symbolizing bet\vixt them in many 
concurrences ; and I believe it is as sovereign as the other, save 
that it is true of things as of persons, " Major e longinquo re- 
verentia." Surely it runneth through some iron-mine, because 
so good for splenetic distempers. But I leave the full relation 
to such who, having experimentally found the virtue of it, 



PROVERBS. 121 

can set their seal of probatum est unto the commendation 
thereof." 

PROVERBS. 
" A Kentish yeoman."] 

It passeth for a plain man of a plentiful estate; yeomen in 
this county bearing away the bell for wealth from all of their 
rank in England. 

Yeomen, contracted for Yemen-mein, are so called, saith a 
great antiquary,* from gemein -(g in the beginning is usually 
turned into y, as gate into yate], which signifieth common in 
old Dutch ; so that Yeoman is a Commoner, one undignified with 
any title of gentility ! a condition of people almost peculiar to 
England ; seeing in France, Italy, and Spain (like a lame dye, 
which hath no points betwixt duce and cinque ) no medium be 
tween gentlemen and peasants ; whereas amongst us the yeo 
men, Ingenui, or Legates Homines, are in effect the basis of all 
the nation, formerly most mounting the subsidy-book in peace 
with their purses, and the muster-roll in war with their persons. 
Kent, as we have said, affordeth the richest in this kind; whence 
the rhyme, 

" A knight of Cales, and a gentleman of Wales, 

And a laird of the north countree ; 
A yeoman of Kent, with his yearly rent, 
Will buy them out all three." 

Cales Knights were made in that voyage, by Robert earl of 
Essex, anno Domini 1596, to the number of sixty, whereof 
(though many of great birth and estate) some were of low for 
tunes ; and therefore queen Elizabeth was half offended with 
the earl for making knighthood so common. Of the numerous- 
ness of Welsh gentlemen we shall have cause to speak here 
after. Northern lairds are such who in Scotland hold lands in 
chief of the king, whereof some have no great revenue, so that 
a Kentish yeoman (by the help of an hyperbole) may counter 
vail, &c. 

Yet such yeomen refuse to have the title of Master put upon 
them, contenting themselves without any addition of gentility ; 
and this mindeth me of a passage in my memory. One immode 
rately boasted, " that there was not one of his name in all Eng 
land, but that he was a gentleman." To whom one in the 
company returned, " I am sorry, sir, you have never a good man 
of your name." 

Sure am I in Kent there is many a hospital yeoman of great 
ability, who, though no gentleman by descent and title, is one by 
his means and state ; let me also add by his courteous carriage, 
though constantly called but Good-man, to which name he de- 
sireth to answer in all respects. 

* Verstegan, in his " Restoring of Decayed Intelligence." 



122 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

" A Man of Kent."*] 

This may relate either to the liberty or to the courage of this 
county men ; liberty, the tenure of villanage (so frequent else 
where) being here utterly unknown, and the bodies of all Kentish 
persons being of free condition. Insomuch that it is holden 
sufficient for one to avoid the objection of bondage, to say " that 
His father was born in Kent."f Now seeing " servi non sunt 
viri, quia non sui juris," (a bond-man is no man, because not 
his own man) ; the Kentish for their freedom have achieved to 
themselves the name of men. 

Others refer it to their courage ; which from the time of king 
Canutus hath purchased unto them the precedency of marching 
in our English armies to lead the van. 

" Ob egregise virtutis meritum, quod potenter et patenter 
exercuit, Cantia nostra primse cohortis honorem, et primes con- 
gressus hostium, usque in hodiernum diem in omnibus prseliis 
obtinet "% (For the desert of their worthy valour, which they 
so powerfully and publicly expressed, our Kent obtaineth even 
unto this day the honour of the first regiment, and first assault 
ing the enemy in all battles.) 

Our author lived in the reign of Henry the Second ; and whe 
ther Kentish men retain this privilege unto this day (wherein 
many things are turned upside down, and then no wonder if 
also forward and backward) is to me unknown. * 

" Neither in Kent nor Christendom."] 

This seems a very insolent expression, and as unequal a divi 
sion. Surely the first author thereof had small skill in even 
distribution, to measure an inch against an ell ; yea, to weigh a 
grain against a pound. But know, reader, that this home pro 
verb is calculated only for the elevation of our own country, and 
ought to be restrained to English Christendom, whereof Kent 
was first converted to the faith. So then Kent and Christendom 
(parallel to Rome and Italy) is as much as the first cut, and all the 
loaf besides. I know there passes a report, that Henry the 
Fourth, king of France, mustering his soldiers at the siege of a 
city, found more Kentish men therein than foreigners^ of all 
Christendom beside, which (being but seventy years since) is by 
some made the original of this proverb, which was more ancient 
in use : and therefore I adhere to the former interpretation ; 
always provided, 



Si quid novisti rectius it,tis, 



Candidus imperil ; si non, his utere mecum. 

" If thou know st better, it to me impart ; 
If not, use these of mine with all my heart." 

* There is a dispute between East and West as to which part of the county at 
taches " Men of Kent, and to which only " Kentish Men." ED. 

t Fitzherbert 15, in title of Villanage. J Johannis Sarisburiensis, 

De Nugis Curial. 6, cap. 16. Thus cited (for hitherto I have not read the 
original) by Mr. Selden, in his Notes on Polyolbion, p. 303. F. 



PROVERBS. 123 

For mine own part, I write nothing but animo revocandi, ready 
to retract it when better evidence shall be brought unto me. 
Nor will I oppose such who understand it for periphrasis of 
nowhere ; Kent being the best place of England, Christendom 
of the world. 

"Kentish long-tails. "] 

Let me premise, that those are much mistaken who first 
found this proverb on a miracle of Austin the monk, which is 
thus reported. It happened in an English village, where Saint 
Austin was preaching, that the Pagans therein did beat and 
abuse both him and his associates, opprobriously tying fish-tails 
to their backsides ; in revenge whereof an impudent author re- 
lateth (Reader, you and I must blush for him who hath not the 
modesty to blush for himself) how such appendants grew to the 
hind parts of all that generation.* I say they are much mis 
taken ; for the scene of this lying wonder was not laid in any 
part of Kent, but pretended many miles off, nigh Cerne in 
Dorsetshire. 

To come closer to the sense of this proverb, I conceive it 
first of outlandish extraction, and cast by foreigners as a note of 
disgrace on all the English, though it chanceth to stick only on 
the Kentish at this day : for, when there happened in Palestine 
a difference betwixt Robert brother to Saint Lewis king of 
France and our William Longspee earl of Salisbury, hear how 
the Frenchman insulted over the nation : 

" O timidorum Caudatorum formidolositas ! quam beatus, 
quam mundus prsesens foret exercitus, si a caudis purgaretur et 
caudatis ! "J (O the cowardliness of these fearful Long-tails ! 
how happy, how clean would this our army be, were it but 
purged from tails and long-tails ! 

That the English were nicked by this speech, appears by the 
reply of the earl of Salisbury, following still the metaphor : 
" The son of my father shall press thither to-day, whither you 
shall not dare to approach his horse-tail. 9 

Some will have the English so called from wearing a pouch 
or poke (a bag to carry their baggage in) behind their backs, 
whilst probably the proud Monsieurs had their lacqueys for that 
purpose ; in proof whereof, they produce ancient pictures of the 
English drapery and armory, wherein such conveyances do ap 
pear. If so, it was neither sin nor shame for the common sort 
of people to carry their own necessaries ; and it matters not 
much whether the pocket be made on either side, or w r holly 
behind. 

If any demand how this nick-name (cut off from the rest of 
England) continues still entailed on Kent ? the best conjecture 
is, because that county lieth nearest to France, and the French 
are beheld as the first founders of this aspersion. But if any 

* Hierome Porter, iu the Flowers of the Lives of the Saints, p. 515. 
f Matthew Paris, anno Domini 1250, p. 790- 



124 WORTHIES OP KENT. 

will have the Kentish so called from drawing and dragging 
boughs of trees behind them, which afterwards they advanced 
above their heads, and so partly cozened, partly threatened, king 
William the Conqueror to continue their ancient customs ; I 
say, if any will impute it to this original, I will not oppose. 

" Kentish Gavel-kind."] 

It is a custom in this county, whereby the lands are divided 
equally among all the sons ; and in default of them amongst the 
daughters ; that is, give all kind, kind signifying a child in the 
low Dutch. This practice, as it appears in Tacitus, was derived 
to our Saxons from the ancient Germans: 

Teulonibus priscis patrius succedit in agros 
Mascula stirps omnis, neforet ullci putens. 

" Mongst the old Teuch, lest one o ertop his breed, 
To his sire s land doth every son succeed." 

It appeareth that, in the eighteenth year of king Henry the 
Sixth, there were not above forty persons in Kent, but all their 
land was held in this tenure. But, on the petition of divers gen 
tlemen, this custom was altered by act of Parliament in the 31st 
of king Henry the Eighth, and Kentish lands for the most part 
reduced to an uniformity with the rest in England.* 

" Dover-court : all speakers, and no hearers- ] 

There is a village in Essex, not far from Harwich, called 
Dover-court, formerly famous for a rood burnt in the reign of 
king Henry the Eighth. But I take it here to be taken for 
some tumultuous court kept at Dover, the confluence of many 
blustering seamen, who are not easily ordered into awful atten 
tion. The proverb is applied to such irregular conferences, 
wherein the people are all tongue and no ears, parallel to the 
Latin proverb, " Cyclopum Respublica," being thus charactered 
that therein ovSeie O.KOVEL ovdev 



" The father to the bough, 
The son to the plough."] 

That is, though the father be executed for his offence, the son 
shall nevertheless succeed to his inheritance. 

In this county, if a tenant in fee-simple of lands in gavel- 
kind commit felony ,t and suffer the judgment of death there 
fore, the prince shall have all his chattels for a forfeiture. But 
as touching the land, he shall neither have the escheat of it, 
though it be immediately holden of himself, nor the day, year, 
and waste, if it be holden of any other ; for in that case the heir, 
notwithstanding the offence of his ancestor, shall enter imme 
diately and enjoy the lands after the same customs and services 
by which they were holden before ; in assurance whereof, the 
former proverb is become current in this county. But this rule 

* No lands were allowed on tenure by the disgavelling acts, except those of the 
gentlemen named in those acts, who were mostly the principal noblemen and gen 
tlemen in the county ED. 

f W. Lambarde s " Perambulation of Kent, "pp. 550 and 551. 



PROVERBS. 125 

holdeth in case of felony and of murder only, and not in case of 
treason, nor (perad venture) in piracy, and other felonies made 
by statutes of later times, because the custom cannot take hold 
of that which then was not in being. It holdeth moreover in 
case where the offender is justiced by order of law, and not 
where he withdraws himself after the fault committed, and will 
not abide his lawful trial. 

" Tenterden s steeple is the cause of the breach in Goodwin Sands. ] 

It is used commonly in derision of such who, being de 
manded to render a reason of some important accident, assign 
" non causam pro causa,* 5 or a ridiculous and improbable cause 
thereof. And hereon a story depends. 

When the vicinage in Kent met to consult about the inun 
dation of Goodwin Sands, and what might be the cause thereof, 
an old man imputed it to the building of Tenterden steeple in 
this county; "for those sands," said he, "were firm lands 
before that steeple was built, which ever since were overflown 
with sea-water." Hereupon all heartily laughed at his unlogical 
reason, making that the effect in Nature, which was only the 
consequent in time ; not flowing from, but following after, the 
building of that steeple. 

But one story is good till another is heard. Though this be 
all whereon this proverb is generally grounded, I met since 
with a supplement thereunto. It is this. Time out of mind 
money was constantly collected out of this county to fence the 
east banks thereof against the eruption of the seas ; and such 
sums were deposited in the hands of the bishop of Rochester. 
But, because the sea had been very quiet for many years, with 
out any encroachings, the bishop commuted that money to the 
building of a steeple, and endowing of a church, in Tenterden. 
By this diversion of the collection for the maintenance of .the 
banks, the sea afterwards brake in upon Goodwin Sands.* And 
now the old man had told a rational tale, had he found but the 
due favour to finish it. And thus, sometimes, that is causelessly 
accounted ignorance in the speaker, which is nothing but im 
patience in the auditors, unwilling to attend the end of the 
discourse. 

"A jack of Dover."] 

I find the first mention of this proverb in our English En- 
nius, Chaucer, in his proem to the cook : 

" And many a jack of Dover he had sold, 

Which had been two times hot, and two. times cold. 

This is no fallacy, but good policy, in an household, to 
lengthen out the provision thereof; and, though less toothsome, 
may be wholesome enough. But what is no false logic in a 
family, is false ethics in an inn, or cook s-shop, to make the 
abused guest to pay after the rate of new and fresh for meat at 
he second and third hand. 

* G. Sandys, in his notes on the 13th of Ovid s Metamorphoses, p. 282. 



126 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

Parallel to this is the Latin proverb, " Crambe bis cocta ;" 
crambe being a kind of colewort, which (with vinegar) being 
raw is good, boiled better, twice boiled noisome to the palate, 
and nauseous to the stomach. 

Both proverbs are appliable to such who grate the ears of 
their auditors with ungrateful tautologies, of what is worthless in 
itself; tolerable as once uttered in the notion of novelty, but 
abominable, if repeated, for the tediousness thereof. 

PRINCES. 

JOHN of ELTHAM, second son to king Edward the Second, 
by Isabel his queen, was born at Eltham in this county. He 
was afterwards created earl of Cornwall. A sprightly gentle 
man, and who would have given greater evidence of his abilities, 
if not prevented by death in the prime of his age. He died in 
Scotland, in the tenth year of the reign of king Edward the 
Third. 

Be it observed that hitherto the younger sons to our English- 
kings were never advanced higher than earls. Thus Richard, 
second son to king John, never had higher English honour than 
the Earl of Cornwall, though at the same time he were king of 
the Romans. But this John of Eltham was the last son of an 
English king who died a plain earl, the title of Duke coming after 
wards into fashion. Hence it was that all the younger sons of 
kings were from this time fonvards created dukes, except ex 
piring in their infancy. 

BRIDGET of ELTHAM, fourth daughter of king Edward the 
Fourth, and Elizabeth his queen, was born at Eltham in this 
county. Observing her three eldest sisters not over happy in 
their husbands, she resolved to wed a monastical life, and (no 
whit ambitious of the place of an abbess) became an ordinary 
votary in the nunnery at Dartford in this county, founded by 
king Edward the Third. The time of her death is uncertain ; 
but this certain, that her dissolution happened some competent 
time before the dissolution of that nunnery. 

EDMUND, youngest son to king Henry the Seventh and Eli 
zabeth his queen (bearing the name of his grand-father Edmund 
of Haddam) was born at Greenwich, in this county, 1495.* 
He was by his father created duke of Somerset ; and he died, 
before he was full five years of age, at Bishop s Hatfield in Hert 
fordshire, which then was the nursery for the king s children. 
Little notice generally is taken of this prince ; and no wonder, 
for 

" Who only act short paths in infant age 

Are soon forgot they e er came on the stage." 

He died anno Domini 1500, in the fifteenth year of his father s 

* Vincent, in his Discovery of Brook s Error?, p. 481. 



PRINCES. 127 

reign; and lieth buried (without any monument) in West 
minster. 

HENRY the EIGHTH, second son of king Henry the Seventh, 
was born at Greenwich. A prince whom some praise to the 
skies, others depress to the pit, whilst the third (and truer) 
sort embrace a middle way betwixt both. 

Extreme. Some carry him up as the paragon of princes ; the 
great advancer of God s glory and true religion ; and the most 
magnificent that ever sate on the throne. Master Fox, in his 
"Acts and Monuments," is sometimes very superlative in his 
commendation ; and so are most Protestant authors who wrote 
under his reign. 

Mean. Polydore Vergil hath an expression of him to this ef 
fect : " Princeps in quo eequali quasi temperamento magnse in- 
erant virtutes, ac non minora vitia ;" (a prince in whom great 
virtues, and no less vices, were in a manner equally contem- 
perated.) 

Extreme. Sir Walter Raleigh, in his preface to his great 
" History," whose words may better be read there than tran 
scribed thence, makes him the truest map of tyranny. Inso 
much, that king James (who could not abide that any under a 
king should speak against a king) was much offended thereat. 
And those words worst became the writer so much advanced by 
the daughter of the said king Henry. 

For mine own part, I humbly conceive, God effected more by 
his work as the instrument, than he was directed by God s word 
as the principal. Indeed he was a man of uncontrollable 
spirit, carrying a mandamus in his mouth, sufficiently sealed 
when he put his hand to his hilt. He awed all into obedience, 
which some impute to his skilfulness to rule, others ascribe to 
his subjects 5 ignorance to resist. 

Let one pleasant passage (for recreation) have its pass amongst 
much serious matter. A company of little boys were by their 
schoolmaster not many years since appointed to act the play of 
" King Henry the Eighth," and one who had no presence, but 
(an absence rather) as of a whining voice, puling spirit, con- 
sumptionish body, was appointed to personate king Henry him 
self, only because he had the richest clothes, and his parents 
the best people of the parish : but, when he had spoken his 
speech rather like a mouse than a man, one of his fellow actors 
told him, " If you speak not Hoh with a better spirit, your Par 
liament will not grant you a penny of money." 

But it is vain to glean in the stubble ; seeing the Lord Her 
bert hath so largely wrote the life of this king, that nothing of 
moment can be added thereunto. He died January 28, 1546. 

MARY, eldest daughter to king Henry the Eighth and queen 
Katherine of Spain, was born at Greenwich, the 18th of Febru- 



j 



128 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

ary 1518. She did partake of both her parents in her person 
and properties ; having from her father a broad face, big voice, 
and undaunted spirit; from her mother a swarthy complexion, 
and a mind wholly devoted to the Romish religion. She at 
tained the crown by complying with the gentry of Norfolk and 
Suffolk, promising them to continue religion as established by 
king Edward the Sixth ; after the breach of which promise she 
never prospered. For, first, she lost the hearts of her subjects, 
then her hopes of a child, then the company, not to say affec 
tion, of her husband, then the city of Calais, then her mirth, 
then her health, then her life, which ended on the 17th of No 
vember, 1558. 

Queen ELIZABETH, second daughter to king Henry the 
Eighth, was born at Greenwich, September J, 1533. She was 
heir only to the eminences of her father, his learning, bounty, 
courage, and success ; besides grace and true goodness, wherein 
she was daughter to her mother. 

Her learning appears in her two Latin speeches to the uni 
versity ; and a third, little better than extempore, to the Poland 
ambassador. Her bounty was better than her father s, less 
flowing from humour, and more founded on merit, and ordered 
with moderation ; seeing that is the best liberality that so en- 
richeth the receiver that it doth not impoverish the giver. 

Her courage was undaunted, never making herself so cheap 
to her favourites but that she still valued her own authority, 
whereof this an eminent instance : 

A prime officer with a white staff, whose name I purposely 
forbear, coming into her presence, the queen willed him to con 
fer such a place now void on one of her servants whom she 
commended unto him. " Pleaseth your highness, madam," 
saith the lord, " the disposal thereof pertaineth to me by virtue 
of this white staff conferred upon me." "True," said the 
queen ; " yet I never gave you your office so absolutely, but I 
still reserved myself of the quorum." " But of the quarum, 
madam \" returned the lord, presuming on the favour of her 
highness. Hereat the queen, in some passion, snatching the staff 
out of his hand, " You shall acknowledge me," said she, " of the 
quorum, quarum, quorum, before you have it again." The lord 
waited staff-less almost a day (which seemed so long unto him as 
if the sun stood still) before the same was reconferred upon him. 

Her success was admirable, keeping the king of Spain at 
arms-end all her reign. She was well skilled in the queen-craft ; 
and, by her policy and prosperity, she was much beloved by her 
people; insomuch that since it hath been said, "that q ueen 
Elizabeth might lawfully do that which king James might not." 
For, although the laws were equally the rule to them both, yet 
her popularity sugared many bitter things ; her subjects thank- 



PRIN 7 CES SAINTS. 129 

ing her for taking those taxes which they refused to pay to her 
successor. She died at Richmond, March 24, anno Domini 
1602. 

MARY, daughter to king James and Anne of Denmark his 
queen, was born at Greenwich, April 8, about eleven o clock at 
night, and soon after baptized with greater state than the me 
mory of any then alive in England could recover.* King 
James was wont pleasantly to say, " that he would not pray to 
the Virgin Mary, but he would pray for the Virgin Mary;" 
meaning his own daughter. But, it seems, his prayers prevailed 
not (Divine Providence having otherwise determined it) for her 
long life, who expired in her infancy, and lies buried at West 
minster. 

SOPHIA, youngest daughter to king James and queen Anne, 
was born at Greenwich the 22nd day of June 1606; and de 
parted this life three days after.f This royal babe lieth buried 
nigh queen Elizabeth, in the north part of the chapel of king 
Henry the Seventh, represented sleeping in her cradle, where 
with vulgar eyes, especially of the weaker sex, are more affected 
(as level to their cognizance, more capable of what is pretty 
than what is pompous) than with all the magnificent monuments 
in Westminster. 

CHARLES, eldest son of king Charles and queen Mary, was 
born at Greenwich, anno 1629. A fright of his mother is gene 
rally reported to have accelerated, or rather antedated, his na 
tivity. The popish priests belonging to the queen stood ready, 
watching to snatch the royal babe to their superstitious baptism ; 
but the tender care of king Charles did out- vigil their watchful 
ness, commanding Doctor Webb (his next chaplain in attend 
ance) to christen it according to the church of England. This 
done, within few hours he expired ; and lies buried at West 
minster, 

SAINTS. 

EALPHAGE, born of good parentage, had his education 
during his youth in Gloucestershire ; then he became a monk 
at Glastonbury. But, that place not sufficiently suiting the se 
verity of his solitary soul, removing thence he built himself a 
hut at Bath, which small cell in process of time (the long 
est line proceedeth from a little point at first) proved the beau 
tiful priory in that place. Hence by Dunstan he was preferred 
bishop of Winchester, continuing therein twenty-two years ; and 
at last became bishop of Canterbury. J 

* Stow s Chronicle, p. 862. 

f Stow, in his Survey of London, continued by How, p. 512. 

j Godwin, in his Catalogue of Archbishops of Canterbury. 

VOL. II. K 



130 WORTHIES OF KENT*. 

It happeneth that the cruel Danes seizing on that city put it 
under decimation. Start not, loyal reader, at the word, if in the 
late tyranny of the times thou thyself hast been against all right 
and reason decimated in thy purse, as now the poor citizens of 
Canterbury were in their persons. For the Danes (under pre 
tence of tribute detained), saved the tenth part of the citizens 
alive amounting unto eight hundred and four : destroyed the 
other nine parts, no fewer than seven thousand two hundred 
and thirty-six. 

As for archbishop Alphage they demanded of him a greater 
sum than he could pay or procure, whose wealth consisted 
chiefly in his piety, no current coin with the pagan Danes ; so 
that, after seven months imprisonment, they barbarously mur 
dered him, near Greenwich, about the year 1013. 

His corpse was first buried in St. Paul s ; and then removed, 
by the command of king Canutus, to Canterbury. Impudent 
monks have almost as much wronged his memory, as the Danes 
did his person ; farcing his life with such abominable lies, that 
thereby the very truth therein is rendered suspected. 

AGELNOTH, son to count Agelmar, was a calendared saint 
in this county, being elected archbishop of Canterbury, from 
being dean over the canons in that convent.* 

This is the first time I find the dignity of Decanus, or Dean, 
in England ; so called from Ae /ca, ten,t having (it seemeth), at 
the first, inspection just over that number, though since an 
Heteroclite in England ; as, either over fewer, but six in Nor 
wich, Bristol, &c. ; or many more in other cathedrals. 

He was so pious in his life, that he was commonly called the 
Good. And here one may justly wonder; God having two 
grand epithets, Optimus and Maximus, most give the former the 
go-by, and strive only for the latter, to be the greatest ; though 
greatness without goodness is both destructive to him that hath 
it, and dangerous to all others about him. 

Going to Rome to get his pall from the Pope, by him he was 
courteously entertained, and deserved his welcome, who gave 
him (saith my authorj) for the arm of Saint Augustine bishop 
of Hippo, one hundred talents of silver, and one talent of gold, 
citing bishop Godwin for his author : but indeed that bishop, 
though reporting the hundred talents of silver, mentioneth not 
at all that of gold. 

Perchance Mr. Weever had lately read (still obversing his 
fancy) how Pharaoh king of Egypt, having taken away king 
Jehoahash, "condemned the land in an hundred talents of 
silver, and a talent of gold." And to me it is a double wonder ; 
first, that this archbishop would give ; secondly, that he could 

* Weever, Funeral Sermon, p. 301. 

t Cowel s Interpreter, on the word Dean. f Weever, ut prius. 

2 Chronicles xxxvi. 3. 



SAIMTS MARTYRS. 131 

give, living in a harraged land (wherein so much misery and 
little money) so vast a sum. 

However, this mindeth me of a passage in Saint Augustine, 
speaking of the relics of the deceased, " Si tamen martyrum," 
(if so they be of martyrs) ; and let me choose the words of this 
Father on this Father, " Si tamen Augustini :" If this were 
the arm of Saint Augustine, and not of some other ordinary 
(not to say infamous) person. 

Well, were one as good a mathematician as he who collected 
the stature of Hercules from the length of his foot, it were easy 
to proportion the price of Saint Augustine s whole body, from 
this valuation of his arm. And now, having so dearly bought it, 
let him dispose thereof as he pleaseth ; and let no man grudge 
if he gave it to Coventry rather than Canterbury. 

He expended much in repairing (or rather renewing) of his 
cathedral of Canterbury, lately destroyed by the Danes; assist 
ed therein by the bounty of king Canutus, who, at the instance 
and by the advice of this prelate, did many worthy works. 
Our Agelnoth, after he had sat seventeen years in his see, died 
October 29, in the year 1038. 

MARTYRS. 

WILLIAM WHITE was born in this county ; and entering 
into orders, became a great maintainer of the opinions of Wic- 
liffe.* He was the first married priest in England since the 
Pope s solemn prohibition thereof. I find Johan his wife com 
mended for her modesty and patience, and that she was " con- 
jux tali digna marito."t Indeed she shared very deep in her 
husband s sufferings, hardly coming off with her life at the last; 
for he, though leaving his living (as unsafe to hold), still kept 
his calling, and preached about all the eastern parts of the land. 

The same mouth which commanded the disciples in time of 
peace, " Go not from house to house," J so to avoid the censure of 
levity, advised them also, " When ye are persecuted in one 
city, fly to another/ so to provide for their own security. 
Such the constant practice of this William White, who was as 
a partridge daily on the wing, removing from place to place. At 
last he was seized on at Norwich by William Alnwick, the 
cruel bishop thereof, and charged with thirty articles, for which 
he was condemned, and burnt at Norwich in September 1428. || 
He was the Proto-martyr of all born in this county ; and had not 
five before him in all England who suffered merely for religion, 
without any mixture of matter of state charged upon them. 

As for Marian martyrs, we meet with many in this county, 
though not to be charged on cardinal Pole archbishop of 
Canterbury, further than his bare permission thereof. 

It is observed of bears, that they love to kill their own 

* Bale, de Scriptorilms Britannicie, p. 564. f Idem, ibidem. 

J Luke x. 7. Matthew x. 23. || Fox. Acts and Monuments, 

K 2 



132 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

prey, and (except forced by famine) will not feed on what was 
dead before. Such a bear was bloody Bonner, who was all for 
the quick, and not for the dead ; whilst, clean contrary, cardinal 
Pole let the living alone, and vented his spleen only on the dead 
(whom he could wrong, but not hurt) ; burning the bones of 
Martin Bucer and Paulus Phagius at Cambridge. Such martyrs, 
therefore, as suffered in this shire, were either by the cruelty of 
Griffin bishop of Rochester, or of Thornton suffragan of Dover. 

CONFESSORS. 

SIMON FISH, Esquire, was born in this county, bred a lawyer 
in Gray s Inn, London.* Here he acted that part in a tragedy, 
wherein the pride of Cardinal Wolsey was personated, and 
wherewith that prelate was so offended, that Fish was fain to 
fly, and live two years beyond the seas. There he made, and 
thence sent over into England, a small but sharp treatise, called 
" The Supplication of Beggars," termed by Master Fox a libel, 
understand him a little book ;t otherwise prizing and praising it 
for a master-piece of wit, learning, and religion, discovering the 
superstition of that age. This by queen Anna Bolen, was pre 
sented by king Henry the Eighth, who therewith was so highly 
affected, that he sent for the author home, and favoured him in 
great proportion. 

However, many nets were laid by the Popish party against 
him, especially by Sir Thomas More, his implacable enemy ; yet 
Fish had the happiness to escape the hands of men, and to fall 
into the hand of God more immediately ; dying of the plague, 
1531, and lieth buried at St. Dunstan s in London. 

Sir JAMES HALES was born, did live, and was richly landed, 
in this county, J one of the justices of the Common Pleas, a man 
of most signal integrity. When the rest of the judges (frighted 
at the frowns of the duke of Northumberland) subscribed the 
disinheriting of the Lady Mary and Lady Elizabeth, he only 
refused, as against both law and conscience. 

Yet afterwards, in the first of queen Mary, he fell into the 
displeasure of bishop Gardiner (which, like juniper coals, once 
kindled hardly quenched) for urging the observation of some 
laws of king Edward the Sixth. For this he was imprisoned, 
hardly used, and so threatened by his keeper, that he endea 
voured to have killed himself ; which, being after let at liberty, 
he afterwards effected, drowning himself in a small water near 
his house ; fear and melancholy so much prevailing upon him. 
Mr. Fox concludeth the sad poem of his final estate with this 
distich : 



* J. Bale, in his book titled " Scriptores nostri Temporis," p. 102. 

t .Acts and Monuments, page 1014. 

t His house was at the Dane-John, or Dungeon, Canterbury. ED. 



CARDINALS. 133 

Cum nik d ipse vides, propria quiii lobe laborel, 
Tu tuafac cures, ceetera mitte Deo. 

" Seeing nought thou seest, but failing in the best, 
Mind thy own matters, and leave God the rest." 

We must look on his foul deed with anger, and yet with pity 
on the doer thereof; frown on the one, and weep for the other : 
for, seeing he had led a right godly life, and had suffered so 
much on the account of his conscience, I hope that his station 
in this place will not be cavilled at by any charitable persons. 
He died anno Domini 1555. 

CARDINALS. 

JOHN KEMP, son to Thomas, grand-child to Sir John Kemp, 
nephew to Sir Roger Kemp, both knights, was born at Wye in 
this county (where he built a fair college for seculars) ; bred also 
in Merton College in Oxford ; successively bishop of Rochester, 
Chichester, and London ; afterwards archbishop of York and 
Canterbury ; cardinal, first by the title of Saint Balbine, then of 
Saint Rufine in Rome : all his preferments are comprehended 
in the old following verse : * 

" Bis primas, ter praesul erat, bis cardine functus." 

He had another honour, to make up the distich, being twice 
lord chancellor of England ; so that I may add : 

" Et dixit legem bis cancellarius Anglis. 

Such are mistaken who report him the first raiser of his family 
to a knightly degree, which he found in that equipage, as is afore 
said, though he left it much improved in estate by his bounty; 
and some of his name and blood flourish in Kent at this day. 
He died a very old man, March the 22d, anno 1453. 

RICHARD CLIFFORD. His nativity may bear some debate, 
Herefordshire pretending unto him : but because Robert Clif 
ford was his brother t (in the first of king Henry the Fourth 
high-sheriff of this county, and richly landed therein), I adjudge 
him a Cantian, and assign Bobbing as the most probable place 
of his birth. His worth preferred him bishop of London 1407 ; 
and he was sent by king Henry the Fourth as his ambassador 
of the council of Constance. I could [not] hold my hand from 
ranking him under the topic of^Cardinals, confident that no in 
genious person would take exception thereat. For, first, he was 
one in merit and desert. Secondly, in general desire and de 
signation. Thirdly, (though no actual cardinal) he acted as a 
cardinal when joined to their conclave to see fair play amongst 
them at the choosing of a new Pope. Yea, some mentioned 
him for the place, who (counting it more credit to make, than 
be, a pope) first nominated cardinal Columna, and he clearly 

* Made by Thomas Kemp, his kinsman, Bishop of London. 
] Villare Cantianum, p. 24. 



134 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

carried it by the name of Martin.* During his abode at Con 
stance, he preached a Latin sermon before the emperor and 
Pope. He answered his name de clivo forti, or of the strong 
rock indeed, viz. David s. t Being a most pious person, re 
turning home he lived in good esteem with prince and people, 
until his death, which happened 1421, being buried nigh the 
present monument of Sir Christopher Hatton. 

PRELATES. 

RALPH of MAYDENSTAN. I presume this the ancient ortho 
graphy of Maidstone (a noted town in this county) ; the rather 
because I met with no other place in England offering in sound 
or syllables thereunto. 

An author giveth him this short but thick commendation : 
" Vir magnse literaturse et in theologia nominatissimus."J In 
somuch that, in the reign of king Henry the Third, 1234, he 
was preferred bishop of Hereford. 

This prelate bought of one Mount-hault, a nobleman, a fair 
house in, and the patronage of, St. Mary Mount-hault (com 
monly, but corruptly, called Mount-haw) in London, leaving 
both to his successors in the see of Hereford. Know, reader, 
that all English bishops in that age had palaces in London for 
their conveniency, wherein they resided, and kept great hospi 
tality, during their attendance in Parliament, 

Now, although the schoolmen generally hold that episcopacy 
is Apex consummates religioms, than which nihil amplius, nothing- 
higher or holier in this life ; and though many friars have been 
preferred bishops as a progressive motion both in dignity and 
sanctity ; yet our Ralph was of a different judgment herein. 
This made him, in the year 1239, turn his mitre into a cowl, 
and become a Franciscan, first at Oxford, then at Gloucester, 
where he died about the year 1244. 

HENRY de WINGHAM (a well-known town in this county) 
was, by king Henry the Third, preferred chancellor both of Eng 
land and Gascony, dean both of Totten-hall (query, where this 
place is ?) and St Martin s, and twice ambassador into France. || 

It happened that one Ethelmar, womb-brother to king Henry 
the Third, was then bishop of Winchester : a person who pro 
perly comes not under my pen ; first, for his foreign nativity ; 
secondly (so much as he was English), he was an UN- WORTHY, 
wanting age, ability, and orders to qualify him in that place.^[ 

Hereupon the monks of Winchester, endeavouring to eject 
him, chose Wingham, a man of merit (and might in the court), 

* All collected out of Godwin s Bishops of London, 
t " Lord, be thou my strong rock," Psalm xxxi. 3. 
J Thomas Wike, in his Chronicle of Osney. 
Godwin, in the Bishops of Hereford. 
II Idem, in the Bishops of London. 
1[ Idem, in the Bishops of Winchester. 



PRELATES. 135 

to be their bishop ; which honour he wisely refused, fearing to 
incur the king s displeasure. It was not long before his mo 
desty and discretion was rewarded with a peaceable (instead of 
that litigious) bishopric, when chosen to London 1259. But 
he enjoyed his see not full two years, dying July 13, 1261 ; and 
was buried in his own cathedral. 

HENRY of SANDWICH, archdeacon of Oxford, was consecrated 
bishop of London 1263. He took part with the seditious barons 
against king Henry the Third, for which he was deservedly ex 
communicated by Othobon, the Pope s legate.* Going to Rome, 
it cost him well nigh an apprenticeship of patience, dancing 
attendance almost seven years before he could gain absolution ; 
which obtained, he returned home, and dying September 16, 
1273, was buried in his own church of St. PauPs.f 

RICHARD of GRAVESEND, archdeacon of Northampton, was 
(after Fulk Lovel had freely refused it) consecrated [at Coven 
try] bishop of London, anno 1282. He was the first founder 
of a convent of Carmelites at Maldon in Essex, and, dying at 
Fulham 1303, was buried in his own cathedral. 

SIMON MEPHAM was born at Mepham in this county.J He 
was bred in Merton College in Oxford. He w r as a good scholar, 
as those days went, chosen by the monks of Canterbury, ap 
proved by king Edward the Third, and consecrated, by the com 
mand of the Pope, archbishop of Canterbury. He is only fa 
mous for two things; his expensive suit with the monks of 
Canterbury, wherein at last he got the better, though it cost 
seven hundred pounds, in the court of Rome. Secondly, his 
magnificent visitation in person of the dioceses south of Thames, 
till he was resisted by Grandison bishop of Exeter. This affront 
did half break Mepham s heart ; and the Pope siding with the 
bishop against him, brake the other half thereof, hastening his 
death, which happened anno Domini 1333. 

HAYMO of HITHE was born therein, a small town on the sea 
side ; hithe in old English signifying a landing-place, as Queen- 
hithe, Garlic-hithe, &c. in London. He was made bishop of 
Rochester in the twelfth of king Edward the Second, to whom 
he was confessor. I believe him owner of good temporal means. 
First, because he made so much building on a mean bishopric, 
erecting the great, hall and fair frontispiece at his palace in 
Hailing, and repairing all the rooms thereof ; not forgetting the 
town of his nativity, where he erected and endowed the hospi- 

* So was also his countryman Benedict of Gravesend, bishop of Lincoln, other 
wise not to be remembered. F. 

t Godwin, in his Catalogue of the Bishops of London. 
j W. Lambarde in his Perambulation of Kent. 



136 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

tal of St. Bartholomew for ten poor people.* Secondly, be 
cause in his old age he lived on his own estate, resigning his 
bishopric, which the charitable conceive done not out of discon 
tent but desire of retirement, to compose himself the better for 
his dissolution, which happened about the year 1355. 

JOHN of SHEPPY, prior of Rochester, succeeded Hayrrio 
aforesaid in the same see ; and for some time was treasurer of 
England. His death happened anno Domini 1360. 

WILLIAM REDE. I place him in this county with con 
fidence, having clearly conquered all suspicions to the contrary: 
first, because of his name then flourishing at Read in Harden 
in this county, f Secondly, because the Provost-place of Wing- 
ham College therein was his first public preferment. To which 
I may add, that he was bred fellow of Merton College (abound 
ing with Cantians, since a bishop in Kent was founder thereof) ; 
and he merited much of that foundation,^ not only building a 
fair library therein, but furnishing it with books, and astrono 
mical tables of his own making, which (they say) are still to 
be seen therein, with this lively picture inserted. || 

In his reduced age he applied himself to divinity, and by king- 
Edward the Third was preferred bishop of Chichester. Retain 
ing his mathematical impressions, he commendably expressed 
them in architecture, erecting a castle eyregii operis, saith my 
author,^ at Ambeiiey in Sussex. His death happened anno 
Domini 1385. 

THOMAS KEMP, brother s son to John Kemp archbishop of 
Canterbury, was born of a knightly family in this county ; bred 
in Oxford, whereof he became proctor anno 1437. By papal 
provision he was made bishop of London, consecrated by his 
uncle at York-house, (now White Hall), and sate in his see** 
forty years, from the twenty-eighth of Henry the Sixth till the 
fifth of Henry the Seventh ; so that he saw the wars between 
Lancaster and York begun, continued, concluded ; and the two 
Roses tied together in one royal posy. I know not whether his 
benefactions were adequate to his long possessing of so wealthy 
a place, finding him to have curiously arched and leaded the 
Divinity schools in Oxford, and built the cross nigh the church 
of St. Paul s, as it stood in our memories ; but lately demolished, 

* Godwin, in his Bishops of Rochester. 

t Villare Cantianum, p. 321. 

J He left also a fund, as did Sir Thomas Bodley, to be occasionally borrowed by 
the fellows on proper security. Chalmers s Oxford, p. 7 ED. 

He was an architect of great skill. The library was built from a plan fur- 
nished by him Ed. 

I! Godwin, in his Bishops of Chichester. fl Baleus. 

** Godwin, in his Bishops of London. 



PRELATES. 137 

though guilty of no other superstition, save accommodating the 
preacher and some about him with convenient places. Me- 
thinks, though idle crosses, standing only for shew, were pub 
lished for offenders, this useful one, which did such service, 
might have been spared ; but all is fish which comes to the net 
of sacrilege. This bishop died anno Domini 1489. 

JAMES GOLDWELL was born at Great Chart in this county ; 
bred in All Souls College, in Oxford ; promoted first to be dean 
of Salisbury, and secretary to king Edward the Fourth, and at 
last made bishop of Norwich. He not only repaired the church 
at Great Chart, where he was born ; but also founded a chapel 
on the south-side thereof, where his picture is in the east win 
dow, with his rebus [viz. a golden well] in every quarry of the 
same.* He died anno Domini 1498. 

THOMAS GOLDWELL was born at Goldwell in the parish of 
Great Chart in this county, w r here his family had long flourished, 
till lately alienated. t He was by queen Mary preferred bishop 
of St. David s ; and, as a volunteer, quitted the land in the first 
of queen Elizabeth. Going to Rome, he made a deal of do to 
do just nothing ; prevailing by much importunity with the Pope 
to procure large indulgences for such who superstitiously were 
in pilgrimage to, and offered at, the Well of Saint Winifred in 
his diocese. The obscurity of his death denieth us the exact 
date thereof. 

Reader, I am sensible how imperfect my list is of the bishops 
in this county ; the rather because I have heard from my wor 
thy friend and excellent historian Mr. Fisher, fellow of Merton 
College, that, this his native shire of Kent had twelve bishops at 
one time, whilst I can hardly make up twelve bishops at all 
times before the Reformation : but my defects will be perfectly 
supplied by such who shall topographically treat of this subject 
in relation to this county alone. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

JOHN POYNET was born in this county ;J bred (say some) in 
King s College in Cambridge. Sure I am, he was. none of the 
foundation therein, because not appearing in Master Hatcher s 
exact manuscript catalogue. Bale is rather to be believed 
herein, making him to be brought up in Queen s College in the 
same university. 

But, wherever he had his education, he arrived at admirable 
learning, being an exact Grecian, and most expert mathemati 
cian. He presented king Henry the Eighth with a horologium 
(which I might English dial, dock, or ivatch, save that it is 

Weaver s Funeral Monuments, p. 296. f Villare Cantianum, p. 145. 

t Bishop Godwin, in his Bishops of Winchester. 
Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. 8. numb. 62. 



138 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

epitheted sciotericum*} observing the shadow of the sun, and 
therein shewing not only the hours, but days of the month, 
change of the moon, ebbing and flowing of the sea, &c. I con 
fess the modern mystery of watchmaking is much completed 
(men never being more curious to divide, more careless to em 
ploy, their time) ; but surely this was accounted a master-piece 
in that age. 

His sermons so endeared him to king Edward the Sixth, that 
he preferred him (whilst as yet scarce thirty-six years of age) to 
the bishopric of Rochester, then of Winchester. But, alas! 
these honours soon got were as soon lost, being forced to fly 
into High Germany in the first of queen Mary, where, before 
he was fully forty, and before he had finished his book begun 
against Thomas Martin in defence of ministers marriage, he died 
at Strasburg, the 2d of August 1556, and was buried there with 
great lamentation. 

RICHARD FLETCHER was born in this county, brother to 
doctor Giles Fletcher the civilian and ambassador in" Russia, 
and bred in Bennet College in Cambridge. t He was afterwards 
dean of Peterborough at what time Mary queen of Scots was 
beheaded at Fotheringhay, to whom he made, saith my author, J 
" verbosam orationem," (a wordy speech), of her past, present, 
and future condition, wherein he took more pains than he re 
ceived thanks from her who therein was most concerned. 

Hence he was preferred bishop of Peterborough, and at last 
of London ; my author saith he was Prcesul splendidus,^ and 
indeed he was of a comely presence, and queen Elizabeth knew 
full well, 

Gratior est pulcliro veniens e carport virtus : 

" The jewel virtue is more grac d 
When in a proper person cas d." 

Which made her always, on an equality of desert, to reflect 
favourably on such who were of graceful countenance and 
stature. 

In one respect this bishop may well be resembled to John 
Peckham archbishop of Canterbury, of whom I find this cha 
racter : " Quanquam gestu et incessu, seepe etiam in sermone 
gloriosus videretur et elatus ; animo tamen fuit benignissimo et 
perquam cormV || (Athough he seemed a boaster, and puffed up 
both in gesture and gait, and sometimes in his speech also ; yet 
was he of a loving disposition and exceeding courteous). 

Such a one was bishop Fletcher, whose pride was rather on 
him than in him, as only gait and gesture-deep, not sinking to 
his heart, though causelessly condemned for a proud man, as 

* Bishop Godwin, ut prius. f So his near relation informed me. F. 

I Camden s Elizabeth, anno 1589. Idem, in anno 1596. 

II Bishop Godwin, in his Catalogue of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and the 
Life of J. Peckham. 



PRELATES STATESMEN. 139 

who was a good hypocrite, and far more humble than he ap 
peared. 

He married a lady of this county,* who one commendeth for 
very virtuous ; which if so, the more happy she in herself, though 
unhappy that the world did not believe it. Sure I am, that 
queen Elizabeth (who hardly held the second matches of bishops 
excusable) accounted his marriage a trespass on his gravity, 
whereupon he fell into her deep displeasure. Hereof this bi 
shop was sadly sensible, and, seeking to lose his sorrow in a 
mist of smoke, died of the moderate taking thereof, June the 
15th, 1596.f 

BRIAN DUPPA, D.D. the worthy bishop of Winchester, was 
born at Lewisham in this county. Staying for farther instruc 
tions, I am forced to defer his life to our Additions. 

STATESMEN. 

Sir EDWARD POYNINGS, Knight, was in martial performances 
inferior to none of his age, and a native of this county, as from 
the catalogue of the sheriffs therein may be collected. We will 
insist only on his Irish action, being employed by king Henry 
the Seventh to conjure down the last walking spirit of the 
house of York which haunted that king ; I mean Perkin War- 
beck. 

Having ferreted him out of Ireland, he seriously set himself 
to reclaim that barbarous nation to civility ; and, in order there 
unto, passed an act in Parliament, whereby " all the statutes 
made in England before that time were enacted, established, 
and made of force, in Ireland." He caused also another law to 
be made, that no act should be propounded to any parliament in 
Ireland, till first it had been transmitted into England, approved 
there, by the king, and returned thence under his broad seal. 

Now though this act seemeth, prima facie, prejudicial to the 
liberty of the Irish subjects ; yet was it made at the request of 
the Commons upon just and important cause, being so sensible 
of the oppression and laws imposed by private lords, for their 
particular ends, that they rather referred themselves to the king s 
justice than to the merciless mercy of so many masters. 

Also, to conform Ireland to England, he procured the passing 
of an act, that the Irish barons should appear in parliament in 
their robes, which put a face of grandeur and state on their con 
vention. And indeed formalities are more than formalities in 
matters of this nature, essential to beget a veneration in barba 
rous people, who carry much of their brain in their eyes. 

He thriftily improved the king s revenues, and obtained a sub- 

* Sir Richard Baker, in his Chronicle, 
f Camden s Elizabeth, in anno 1596. 

j This addition Dr. Fuller did not live to make The bishop of Winchester 

died in 1662. ED. 



140 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

sidy, of twenty-six shillings eight pence, payable yearly for five 
years, out of every six score acres manured. The worst was, 
the burden fell on their backs whose islands were most indus 
trious, whereby the sovereign became not more wealthy, but 
the subjects more lazy, the mischief being as apparent as the 
remedy impossible. Many more large laws of his making found 
but narrow performance, viz. only within the pale. Nor was Henry 
the Seventh (though in title) in truth lord of all Ireland, but, 
by the favour of a figure and large synecdohe, of a part for 
the whole. These things thus ordered, Sir Edward was recalled 
into England, created a baron, and, dying in the beginning of 
king Henry the Eighth, left a numerous natural but no legiti 
mate issue. 

Sir ANTHONY ST. LEGER is rationally reputed a Kentish man 
(though he had also a Devonshire relation), as will appear to such 
who peruse the sheriffs of this county. He was properly the 
first viceroy of Ireland, seeing shadows cannot be before their 
substance : and in his deputyship Henry the Eighth (in the 
thirty-third year of his reign) assumed the title of King and Su 
preme Head of the Church of Ireland. 

To him all the Irish nobility made their solemn submission, 
falling down at his feet upon their knees, laying aside their gir 
dles, skeines, and caps. This was the fourth solemn submission 
of the Irish to the kings of England ; and most true it is, such 
seeming submissions have been the bane of their serious sub 
jection : for, out of the pale, our kings had not power either to 
punish or protect, where those Irish lords (notwithstanding 
their complimental loyalty) made their list the law to such whom 
they could overpower. He caused also certain ordinances of 
state to be made not altogether agreeable with the rules of the 
law of England, a satisfactory reason hereof being given in the 
preamble to them : * 

" Quia nondum sic sapiunt leges et jura, ut secundiim ea 
jam immediate vivere et regi possint ; * (because the [Irish] 
as yet do not so savour the laws [of England] as immediately 
to live after and be ruled by them.) 

Thus the greatest statesman must sometimes say " by your 
leave 3} to such as are under them, not acting always according 
to their own ability, but others capacity. 

He seized all the abbey lands in Ireland for the king s use ; a 
flower of the crown which alone had made a posy, if continued 
thereunto. But, alas ! the revenues of abbey lands are as ruin 
ous as their buildings, nothing more than the rubbish thereof 
remaining in the king s Exchequer. He made a law, " that no 
children should be admitted to church livings : " which import- 
eth the frequency of that abuse in former times. He persuaded 

* In the Council-book of Ireland, in the 33rd of king Henry VIII. 



STATESMEN. 141 

O Neile, O Brian, &c. to go over to England, to surrender their 
lands into the king s hands ; promising they should receive them 
again from him by letters patent, with the addition of Earls, 
which was done accordingly. At his desire the king conferred 
on them houses nigh Dublin, that, residing there, they might 
suck in civility with the court air. These things thus settled, 
he returned into England ; and died (as I take it) in the reign 
of kinff Edward the Sixth. -* 



Sir HENRY SIDNEY was son to Sir William Sidney, of Pens- 
hurst in this county, who, by his own worth was advanced into 
the favour of queen Elizabeth (never a wit the less for marrying 
Mary Dudley, sister to Robert earl of Leicester) ; he was by 
her made knight of the Garter, lord president of Wales, and for 
eleven years (off and on) deputy of Ireland. 

Now, though generally the Irish are querulous of their depu 
ties (what patient for the present will praise his chirurgeon, who 
soundly searcheth his sore ?) yet Sir Henry left a good memory 
and the monuments of a good governor behind him. 1. He 
made Annaly, a territory in Loynsteresse by the Sept of Offer- 
ralles, one entire shire by itself, called the county of Longford : 
he likewise divided the province of Conn aught into six coun 
ties.* 2. In a parliament held the eleventh of Elizabeth, he 
abolished the pretended and usurped captain-ships, and all ex 
tortions incident thereunto. 3, He caused an act to pass, 
whereby the lord deputy was authorized to accept the surren 
ders of the Irish seignories, and to regrant estates unto them, 
to hold of the crown by English tenures and services. 4. Be 
cause the inferior sort of the Irish were poor, and not amenable 
by law, he provided, that five of the best persons of every Sept 
should bring in all the persons of their surname, to be justified 
by the law. 5. A law was made, that, for the civil education 
of the youth, there should be one free school at least in every 
diocese. 6. To acquaint the people of Munster and Connaught 
with the English government again (disused amongst them for 
two hundred years), he instituted two presidency courts in those 
two provinces. 7- To augment the revenues of the crown, he 
resumed and vested therein (by the power of the same parlia 
ment) more than half the province of Ulster, upon the attainder 
of Shane O Neale. 8. He raised customs upon the principal 
commodities of the kingdom, and reformed the abuses of the 
Exchequer by many good instructions from England. 9. He 
established the composition of the pale, in lieu of purveyance 
and sess of soldiers. 

It must not be forgotten, that he caused the statutes of Ire 
land unto his own time to be printed ; and so (saith my authorj") 
" ex umbra in solem eduxit," (he brought them out of the 

" Sir John Davis, in his Discovery of Ireland, p. 251 . 
t J. Wareus, de Scriptoribus Hibernise, p. 136. 



142 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

shadow into the sunshine) ; whereas formerly they were only in 
manuscript : a sad case, that men should be obliged to the 
observation of those la\vs, scarce ever seen by one in a hundred 
subjected thereunto. 

Being to leave Ireland, anno 15J8, and now ready to go up 
into his ship, he took his leave thereof with the words of the 
Psalmist, " When Israel came out of Egypt, and Jacob from a 
strange people ;"* rejoicing in heart, that he came with a clear 
conscience from that dangerous employment.t He died at 
Worcester, May 5, 1586 ; and his corpse being brought to Pens- 
hurst, was there solemnly interred amongst his ancestors. I 
will close his life with this encomium, which I find in a worthy 
author :J " His disposition was rather to seek after the anti 
quities and the weal-public of those countries which he governed, 
than to obtain lands and revenues within the same ; for I know 
not one foot of land that he had, either in Wales or Ireland/ 

Sir PHILIP SIDNEY. Reader, I am resolved not to part him 
from his father ; such the sympathy betwixt them, living and 
dying both within the compass of the same year. Otherwise 
this knight, in relation to my book, may be termed an ubiqui- 
tary, and appear amongst Statesmen, Soldiers, Lawyers, Writers, 
yea Princes themselves, being (though not elected) in election 
to be king of Poland, which place he declined, preferring rather 
to be a subject to queen Elizabeth, than a sovereign beyond the 
seas." 

He was born at Penshurst in this county, son to Sir Henry 
Sidney (of whom before), and sister s son to Robert earl of 
Leicester; bred in Christ- church in Oxford. Such his appe 
tite to learning, that he could never be fed fast enough there 
with; and so quick and strong his digestion, that he soon 
turned it into wholesome nourishment, and thrived healthfully 
thereon. 

His home-bred abilities travel perfected with foreign accom 
plishments, and a sweet nature set a gloss upon both. He was 
so essential to the English court, that it seemed maimed with 
out his company, being a complete master of matter and lan 
guage, as his " Arcadia " doth evidence. 

I confess I have heard some of modern pretended wits cavil 
thereat, merely because they made it not themselves : such who 
say, that his book is the occasion that many precious hours are 
otherwise spent no better, must acknowledge it also the cause 
that many idle hours are otherwise spent no worse, than in 
reading thereof. 

At last, leaving the court, he followed the camp, being made 
governor of Flushing, under his uncle earl of Leicester. But 

* Psalm cxiv. 1. f Camden s Elizabeth, anno 1578. 

J Doctor Powel, in his History of Wales : Epistle to the Reader. 

Fragmenta Regalia, in his Character. 



STATESMEN JUDGES WRITERS. 143 

the walls of that city (though high and strong) could not con 
fine the activity of his mind, which must into the field, and 
before Zutphen was unfortunately slain with a shot, in a small 
skirmish, which we may sadly term a great battle, considering 
our heavy loss therein. His corpse, being brought over into 
England, was buried in the choir of St. Paul s, with general 
lamentation. 

Sir FRANCIS WALSINGHAM, Knight, was born in this 
county, wherein his family long flourished at Chiselhurst; 
though I read,* that originally they fetched their name from 
Walsingham in Norfolk. He was bred in King s College in 
Cambridge, and gave the king of Spain s bible to the library 
thereof. As a traveller many years beyond the seas, he learnt 
experience; as an agent, he practised it there; and after his 
return, as secretary of state, he taught it to many emissaries 
employed under him. 

None alive did better ken the secretary craft, to get counsels 
out of others, and keep them in himself. Marvellous his saga 
city in examining suspected persons, either to make them 
confess the truth, or confound themselves by denying it to their 
detection. Cunning his hands, who could impick the cabinets 
in the Pope s conclave ; quick his ears, who could hear at Lon 
don what was whispered at Rome ; and numerous the spies and 
eyes of this Argus dispersed in all places. 

The Jesuits, being outshot in their own bow, complained that 
he out-equivocated their equivocation, having a mental reserva 
tion deeper and farther than theirs. They tax him for making 
heaven bow too much to earth, oft-times borrowing a point of 
conscience, with full intent never to pay it again, whom others 
excused by reasons of state and dangers of the times. Indeed 
his simulation (which all allow lawful) was as like to dissimu 
lation (condemned by all good men) as two things could be 
which were not the same. 

He thought that gold might, but intelligence could not, be 
bought too dear ; the cause that so great a statesmen left so 
small an estate, and so public a person was so privately buried 
in Saint Paul s, anno Domini 1590. His only daughter Frances 
was successively matched to three matchless men, Sir Philip 
Sidney, Robert earl of Essex, and Richard earl of Clanricarde. 

CAPITAL JUDGES, AND WRITERS ON THE LAW. 
Sir JOHN FINEUX was by all probability born at Swinkfield 
in this county (as I am informed from my good friend Mr. 
Thomas Fineux, a descendant from him) ; " a place," saith 
Mr. Camden,t " bestowed on his ancestor by T. Criol, a great 
lord in Kent, about the reign of king Edward the Second." I 
learned from the same gentleman, that he was eight and twenty 

* Camden s Britannia, in Norfolk. f In his Remains, p. 118. 



144 WORTHIES OF KENT, 

years of age before he betook him to the study of the law ; that 
he followed that profession twenty-eight years before he was 
made a judge ; and that he continued a judge for twenty-eight 
years, whereby it appears that he lived fourscore and four years. 
This last exactly agrees with Sir Henry Spelman,* making him 
continue lord chief justice of the King s Bench from the 
eleventh of king Henry the Seventh until the seventeenth of 
king Henry the Eighth. 

He was a great benefactor unto Saint Augustine s in Canter 
bury; whose prior, William Mallaham,t thus highly commend- 
eth him in a manuscript instrument : <( Vir prudentissimus, 
genere insignis, justitia prseclarus, pietate refertus, humanitatis 
splendidus, et charitate fcecundus," &c. 

Now though some will say, his convent may well afford him 
good words who gave them good deeds ; yet I believe this cha 
racter of him can in no part be disproved. He died about the 
year 1526, and lies buried in Christchurch in Canterbury ; who 
had a fair habitation in this city, and another at Herne in this 
county, where his motto still remains in each window, " Mise- 
ricordias Domini cantabo in eeternum." 

Sir ROGER MANWOOD, born at Sandwich in this county,J 
applying himself from his youth to the study of the common 
law ; wherein he attained to such eminency, that by queen 
Elizabeth he was preferred second justice of the Common Pleas, 
in which place he gave such proof of his ability and integrity, 
that not long after, in Hilary Term in the twenty-first of queen 
Elizabeth, he was made chief baron of the Exchequer, discharg 
ing that office, to his great commendation, full fourteen years, 
till the day of his death. He was much employed in matters 
of state, and was one of the commissioners who sat on the trial 
of the queen of Scots. His book on " The Forest Laws" is a 
piece highly prized by men of his profession. In vacation time, 
his most constant habitation was at Saint Stephen s in Canter 
bury, where, saith my author, the poor inhabitants were much 
beholden to his bounteous liberalitv.il He erected and en- 

J \ I * 

dowed a fair free-school at Sandwich, the place of his nativity ; 
and died in the thirty-fifth of queen Elizabeth, anno Domini 
1593. 

Sir HENRY FINCH, Knight, was born in this county, of right 
worshipful extraction (their ancient surname being Herbert), a 
family which had, and hath, an hereditary happiness of eminency 
in the study of the laws. He was sergeant at law to king James; 
and wrote a book of the law, in great esteem with men of his own 

" In his Glossary, vcrbo Justiciarius. 
f William Somner, in his Antiquities of Canterbury, 
j Lambarde, in his Perambulation of Kent, p. 131. 
Sir Henry Spelman, in his Glossary, verbo Justiciarius. 
\j Camden s Britannia, in Kent. 



SOLDIERS SEAMEN. 145 

profession : yet were not his studies confined thereunto. Wit 
ness his book of " The Calling of the Jews." And all ingenious 
persons which dissent from his judgment will allow him learn 
edly to have maintained an error, though he was brought into 
some trouble by king James, conceiving that on his principles 
he advanced and extended the Jewish commonwealth, to the 
depressing and contracting of Christian princes free monarchies. 
He was father unto Sir John Finch,* lord chief justice, and for 
a time lord keeper, and baron of Foredwiche, who is still alive. 

SOLDIERS. 

Kent hath so carried away the credit, in all ages, for man 
hood, that the leading of the front, or van- guard (so called from 
avant-guard,, or go on guard, because first in marching) in former 
times hath simply and absolutely belonged unto them ; I say 
absolutely, for I find two other shires contending for that place. 
The best is, it is but a book combat betwixt learned writers ; 
otherwise, if real, such a division were enough to rout an army, 
without other enemy. But let us see how all may be peaceably 
composed, 

It is probable that the Cornish men led the van in the 
days of king Arthur, who, being a native of Cornwall, had 
most cause to trust his own countrymen.t But I behold this as 
a temporary honour which outlasted not his life who bestowed 
it. 

The men of Archenfeld, in Herefordshire, claimed by custom 
to lead the van-guard ;J but surely this privilege was topical, 
and confined to the Welch wars, with which the aforesaid men, 
as borderers, were best acquainted. 

As for Kent, "Cantia nostra primse cohortis honorem, et 
primes congressus hostium usque in hodiernum diem in omni 
bus praeliis obtinet/ saith my author. 

... i . i -..i * 

[Reader, it may rationally be concluded that the ensuing topic 
had been as large in this as in any county in England, see 
ing it is bounded on the sea on the east and south sides thereof, 
had not the author departed this life before the finishing of the 
same.] 

SEAMEN. 

WILLIAM ADAMS was (as his own pen reporteth) born at 
Gillingham in this county ;|| and take the brief account of his 
life, being the first Englishman who effectually discovered Japan. 

* Sir John Finch was appointed Lord Keeper 23 Jan. 15 Car. I. ; and 7th April 
16 Car. I. was created Baron Finch of Fordwiche. He was twice married; but 
died Nov. 20, 1660, without issue ; and was buried at St. Martin s, Canterbury. 
ED. 

f Michael Cornubiensis ; see Cornwall, title SOIDIERS. 

j Camden s Britannia, in Herefordshire. 

Joannes Sarisburiensis, de Nugis Curial. 6, cap. 18. 

|| Purchas s Pilgrims. 

VOL. II. L 



146 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

Twelve years he lived at home with his parents : twelve years 
he was apprentice and servant to Nicholas Diggins, a brave sea 
man ; for some time he was master of one of the queen s ships : 
ten years he served the English Company of Barbary merchants : 
fourteen years (as I collect it) he was employed by the Dutch in 
India; for he began his voyage 1598, pilot to their fleet of five 
sail, to conduct them to Japan ; and, in order to the settlement of 
trade, endured many miseries. He who reads them will concur 
with Cato, and repent that ever he went thither by sea whither 
one might go by land. But Japan being an island, and inacces 
sible save by sea, our Adams s discretion was not to be blamed, 
but industry to be commended in his adventures. He died at 
Firando in Japan about 1612. 

CIVILIANS. 

NICHOLAS WOTTON, son to Sir Robert, was born at Bockton 
Malherb in this county, a place so named, as it seems, from 
some noxious and malignant herbs growing therein. What the 
natural plants there may be, I know not. Sure the moral ones 
are excellent, which hath produced so many of the honourable 
family of the Wottons ; of whom this Nicholas, doctor of civil 
laws, bred in Oxford, may be termed a centre of remarkables, 
so many met in his person. 1. He was dean of the two metro 
politan churches of Canterbury and York. 2. He was the first 
dean of those cathedrals. 3. He was privy councillor ^to four 
successive sovereigns, king Henry the Eighth, king Edward the 
Sixth, queen Mary, queen Elizabeth. 4. He was employed 
thirteen several times in embassies to foreign princes. 

Now because there are some of so diffident natures, that they 
will believe no total sum, except they peruse the particulars, let 
them satisfy themselves with what followeth : 

Five times to Charles the fifth emperor : once to Philip his 
son, king of Spain : once to Francis the First, king of France : 
once to Mary queen of Hungary, governess. of the Netherlands : 
twice to William duke of Clive : once to renew the peace be 
tween England, France, and Scotland, anno Domini 1540: again 
to the same purpose, at Cambray,1549 : once sent commissioner 
with others to Edinburgh in Scotland 1560. 

We must not forget how, in the first of queen Elizabeth, the 
archbishopric of Canterbury w r as proffered unto, and refused by 
him.* He died January the twenty-sixth, anno Domini 1566^ 
being about seventy years of age, and was buried in Canterbury. 

GILES FLETCHER (brother of Richard Fletcher, bishop of 
London) was born in this county, as I am credibly informed.f 
He was bred first in Eton, then in King s College in Cambridge, 

* Holinshed s Chronicle, page 1403. 

f From the mouth of Mr. Ramsey, minister of Rougham in Norfolk, who mar 
ried the widow of Mr. Giles Fletcher, son to this doctor. F. 



- 



CIVILIANS PHYSICIANS. 14 

where he became doctor of law. A most excellent poet (a qua 
lity hereditary to his two sons, Giles and Phineas) ; commis 
sioner into Scotland, Germany, and the Low Countries, for 
queen Elizabeth, and her embassador into Russia, secretary to 
the city of London, and master of the Court of Requests. 

His Russian embassy to settle the English merchandize was 
his master-piece, to Theodore Juanowich, duke of Muscovy. 
He came thither in a dangerous juncture of time, viz. in the 
end of the year 1588. First, some foreigners (I will not say 
they were the Hollanders) envying the free trade of the English, 
had done them bad offices. Secondly, a false report was gene 
rally believed, that the Spanish Armada had worsted the Eng 
lish Fleet ; and the duke of Muscovy (who measured his favour 
to the English by the possibility he apprehended of their return 
ing it) grew very sparing of his smiles, not to say free of his 
frowns, on our merchants residing there. 

However, our doctor demeaned himself in his embassy with 
such cautiousness, that he not only escaped the duke s fury, but 
also procured many privileges for our English merchants, exem 
plified in Mr. Hackluit.* Returning home, and being safely 
arrived at London, he sent for his intimate friend Mr. Wayland, 
prebendary of St. Paul s, and senior fellow of Trinity College in 
Cambridge (tutor to my father, from whose mouth I received this 
report,) with whom he heartily expressed his thankfulness to 
God for his safe return from so great a danger ; for the poets 
cannot fancy Ulysses more glad to be come out of the den of 
Polyphemus, than he was to be rid out of the power of such a 
barbarous prince ; who, counting himself, by a proud and volun 
tary mistake, emperor of all nations, cared not for the law of all 
nations ; and who was so habited in blood, that, had he cut off 
this ambassador s head, he and his friends might have sought 
their own amends ; but the question is, where he would have 
found it ? 

He afterwards set forth a book, called, " The Russian Com 
monwealth," expressing the government, or tyranny rather, 
thereof; wherein, saith my author,t are many things most 
observable. But queen Elizabeth, indulging the reputation of 
the duke of Muscovy as a confederate prince, permitted not the 
public printing of that which such who have private copies 
know to set the valuation thereon. I cannot attain the certain 
date of his death. 

PHYSICIANS. 

ROBERT FLOID, who by himself is Latined Robertus de Flucti- 
bus, was born in this county, and that of a knightly family, as I 
am informed ; bred (as I take it) in Oxford, and beyond the seas : 

* In his volume of English Navigation, p. 4/3. 

f Camden, in his Elizabeth, anno 1 583, when he was agent in Muscovy, as after- 
ward ambassador. F. 

L 2 



148 



WORTHIES OF KENT. 



a deep philosopher, and great physician, who at last fixed his 
habitation in Fenchurch-street, London. He was of the order 
of the Rosa-Crucians, and I must confess myself ignorant of the 
first founder and sanctions thereof. Perchance none know it 
but those that are of it. Sure I am, that a rose is the sweetest 
of flowers, and a cross accounted the sacredest of forms or 
figures, so that much of eminency must be imported in their 
composition. 

His books written in Latin are great, many, and mystical. 
The last some impute to his charity, clouding his high matter 
with dark language, lest otherwise the lustre thereof should 
dazzle the understanding of the reader. The same phrases he 
used to his patients ; and, seeing conceit is very contributive to 
the well working of physic, their fancy, or faith natural, was 
much advanced by his elevated expressions. 

His works are for the English to slight or admire, for French 
and foreigners to understand and use : not that I account them 
more judicious than our own countrymen, but more inquiring 
into such difficulties. The truth is, here at home his books are 
beheld not so good as crystal, which (some say) are prized as 
precious pearls beyond the seas. But I conclude all with the 
character which my worthy (though concealed) friend thus 
wrote upon him : " Lucubrationibus quas solebat edere profusis- 
simas semper visus est plus sumere laboris, quam populares 
nostri volebant fructum, quia hunc fere negligebant, prse tsedio 
legendi, et prejudicio quodam oleam perdendi operamque, ob 
CABALAM, quam scripta ejus dicebantur olere magis quam 
PERIPATUM, et ob ferventius hominis ingenium, in quo plerique 
requirebant judicium." He died on the eighth of September 
anno Domini 1637. 

WILLIAM HARVEY, son of Thomas Harvey, was born at 
Folkstone in this county. His father had a week of sons ; 
whereof this William, bred to learning, was the eldest; his 
other brethren being bound apprentices in London, and all at 
last ended in effect in merchants. They got great estates, and 
made their father the treasurer thereof ; who, being as skilful to 
purchase land, as they to gain money, kept, employed, and 
improved their gainings, to their great advantage ; so that he 
survived to see the meanest of them of far greater estate than 
himself. 

Our William was bred in Caius College in Cambridge, where 
he proceeded doctor of physic. Five years also he studied at 
Padua, making a good composition of foreign and domestic 
learning ; so that afterwards he was (for many years) physician 
to king Charles the First ; and not only doctor medicines, 
but doctor medicorum. 

For this was he that first found out the circulation of the 
blood ; an opinion which entered into the world with great dis- 



PHYSICIANS WRITERS. 



149 



advantages. For, first, none will be acquainted with strangers 
at the first sight, as persons generally suspected ; as if to be 
unknown were part of being guilty. Secondly, the grandees of 
this profession were of the opposite judgment, heavy enough 
without any argument to overlay (and so to stifle) any infant 
opinion by their authority. 

But truth, though it may be questioned for a vagrant, car- 
rieth a passport along with it for its own vindication. Such 
have since shaken friendly hands with Doctor Harvey, which at 
first tilted pens against him. And amongst the rest Riolanus, 
that learned physician, if not ambabus ulnis, with one arm at the 
least, doth embrace his opinion, and partly consent thereunto. 

This doctor, though living a bachelor, may be said to have 
left three hopeful sons to posterity : his books, 1. " De Circula- 
tione Sanguinis," which I may call his son and heir ; the doctor 
living to see it at full age, and generally received. 2. " De 
Generations ; " as yet in its minority ; but, I assure you, grow 
ing up apace into public credit. 3. " De Ovo ;" as yet in the 
nonage thereof; but infants may be men in due time. 

It must not be forgotten, that this doctor had made a good pro 
gress, to lay down a practice of physic, conformable to his the 
sis of the Circulation of Blood ; but was plundered of his papers 
in our civil war. Unhappy dissensions, which not only mur 
dered many then alive ; but may be said by this (call it mischief 
or mischance) to have destroyed more not yet born, whose dis 
eases might have been either prevented or removed, if his wor 
thy pains had come forth into the public; and I charitably 
presume that grateful posterity will acknowledge the improve 
ments of this opinion, as superstructures on his foundation ; 
and thankfully pay the fruit to his memory, who watered, 
planted (not to say made) the root of this discovery. 

He hath since been a second Linacre and great benefactor to 
the college of physicians in London, where his statue stands 
with this inscription : 

" GULIELMO HARVEO, 
Viro monumentis suis immortal!, 
Hoc insuper Coll. Med. London, posuit, 
Qui enim Sanguin. motum (ut et animal, ortum) dedit 
Meruit esse Statorperpetuus." 

He died in the eightieth year of his age, June 3, anno Do 
mini 1657- 

WRITERS. 

JOHN of KENT, so called because born in this county;* after 
he had studied at home with good proficiency, went over into 
France, where he became canon in the church of Saint Mary s 

* J. Pits, in Anglise Scriptovibus, 1248. . 



150 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

in Angiers. But afterwards, being weary of worldly wealth, he 
quitted that place, and turned a Franciscan friar ; and by Pope 
Innocent the Fourth he was sent a joint legate into England. 
He flourished in the year of our Lord 1248. 

HAIMO of FEVERSHAM both had his first breath at, and 
fetched his name from, Feversham in this county. When a 
man, he left the land, and, repairing to Paris, applied his stu 
dies so effectually, that Leland saith he was " inter Aristoteli- 
cos Aristotelissimus." 

He became a Franciscan in the church of St. Denis itself; 
and, returning into England, was elected Provincial of his order. 
Afterwards he was called to reside in Rome for his advice ; 
where, quitting his provincialship to his successor, he was 
chosen general of the Franciscans. Surely he had much real or 
reputed merit, being so highly prized by the Italians, who gene 
rally do as much undervalue us English as they over admire 
themselves. " Speculum honestatis," (the glass of honesty), 
saith one,* was the title given unto him ; though dark and false 
this glass, if Bale may be believed, who taxeth him for being an 
inquisitor after, and persecutor of good people, especially when 
employed by the Pope into Grecia.f Lying on his death-bed 
at Anagnia in Italy, the Pope in person came to visit him, 
which was no small honour unto him : but all would not pro 
long his life, which he ended anno 1260 ; having first, at the 
command of Pope Alexander the Fourth, corrected and amended 
the Roman Breviary. 

SIMON STOCK was born in this county; and, when but twelve 
years of age, w r ent into the woods (whereof this shire then af 
forded plenty), and became a hermit. J This Christian Diogenes 
had for his tub the stock of a hollow tree, whence he fetched his 
name, and (abating* his sex) was like the nymphs called Hama- 
druids, which were the properties of oak trees. " Here he had," 
saith Leland, " water for his nectar, and wild fruits for his am 
brosia/ One may admire how this man here met with learn 
ing, except by inspiration, and except books (as at the original) 
were written on barks of trees, wherewith he conversed : yet the 
university of Oxford would force a bachelor of divinityship 
upon him : and many are the superstitious writings he left to 
posterity. 

Reader, behold here how the roaring lion hath translated 
himself into a inimical ape, endeavouring a mock parallel be 
twixt this Simon and Simeon in the Gospel. 

Old Simeon had a revelation that he should not die till he 
had seen our Saviour come in the flesh. This Simon, aged 

* Pits, anno 1260. f Bale, de Scriptoribus Britanuicis, Cent. iv. num.27. 

\ Bale, ibidem, Cent. iv. num. 7 ; et Pits, in anno 1265. 
Luke ii. 26, 



WRITERS. 151 

eighty years, had a revelation, that before his death he should 
behold a holy order of Carmelites come out of Syria, which fell 
out accordingly.* 

At their arrival in England, our Simon quitted his oak, and 
advanced forward to meet them, as of whom, though he had no 
sight, he had a vision before, which is probably as true as that 
he was fed seven years with manna in Mount Carmel. He was 
chosen the general governor of their order all over Europe ; and 
died in the hundredth year of his age, anno Domini 1265, and 
was buried at Bordeaux in France. 

[AMP.] THOMAS HASELWOOD. I find the name very an 
cient in a worshipful family in Northamptonshire ; and profess 
not only my inclination, but propensity, to gain him for the 
credit of my native country. But that needs not to be (and I 
ought not to make it) rich with the wrong of others. Indeed I 
find a Haselwood (transposition makes no mutation) in Suffolk, 
and another in Northumberland : but their vast distance from 
the monastery of Leeds in this county, wherein our Haselwood 
was bred an Augustinian Friar (with some other insinuations, 
too long to report) prevail with me to fix him in this place. 
He was an excellent scholar himself, and a fortunate school 
master to teach others, and became a faithful and painful histo 
rian. Bale (out of William Botiner, an industrious collector of 
antiquities) assigneth him to flourish under king Edward the 
Second, 1321 ;f but Mr. Weever lighted on a manuscript of his 
making, in Sir Robert Cotton s library, wherein he particularly 
speaks of the achievements of Edward the Black Prince,^ which 
I here thought fit to exemplify : 

" Edwardus filius Edwardi Tertii primogenitus, Princeps Wai- 
lias fortunatissimus, et miles in bello audacissimus, inter vali- 
dissima bella gesta militaria, magnified ab eodem peracta, Johan- 
nem regem Francise apud Poyteizes debellavit; et pluribus, 
tarn nobilibus quam aliis, de dicto regno captis et interfectis, 
eundem regem captivavit, et ipsum potenter in Angliam due- 
turn patri suo praesentavit. Henricum etiam intrusorem His- 
panise potentissime in bello devicit, et Petrum Hispaniee regem 
dudum a regno suo expulsum, potenti virtute in regnum suum 
restituit. Unde propter ingentem sibi probitatem, et actus ip- 
sius triumphales, memoratum principem, inter regales regum 
memorias, dignum duximus commendandum." 

Thus have I (not killed two birds with one bolt, but) revived 
two men s memories with one record, presenting the reader 
(according to my promise) with the character of this prince, 
and style of this writer, speaking him, in my conjecture, to have 
lived about the reign of king Richard the Second. 

* Bale, ibidem. f De Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. v. num. 20. 

J Funeral Monuments, p. 206. 

In our Description of Oxfordshire, in this Prince s Life. F. 



152 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

Sir THOMAS WIAT, Knight,, commonly called the Elder., to 
distinguish him from Sir Thomas Wiat, raiser of the rebellion 
(so all call it, for it did not succeed) in the reign of Queen 
Mary, was born at Allington castle in this county, which af 
terwards he repaired with most beautiful buildings. He was 
servant to king Henry the Eighth, and fell, as I have heard, 
into his disfavour, about the business of queen Anna Bpleyn, 
till, by his innocence, industry, and discretion, he extricated 
himself. 

He was one of admirable ingenuity, and truly answered his 
anagram, WIAT, "a wit." Camden saith he was " Eques aura- 
tus, splendide doctus."* 

It is evidence enough of his Protestant inclination, because he 
translated David s Psalms into English metre ; and though he be 
lost both to Bale and Pits in the catalogue of writers, yet he is 
plentifully found by Leland,t giving him this large commen 
dation : 

Bella suum meritojactet Florcntia Dantem ; 

Regia Petrarchce carmina Roma probat : 
His non inferior patrio sermone Viattus, 

Eloquii secum quidecus omne tulit. 

" Let Florence fair her Dante s justly boast, 

And royal Rome her Petrarch s numbered feet : 
In English Wiat both of them doth coast, 
In whom all graceful eloquence doth meet." 

This knight being sent ambassador by king Henry the Eighth 
to Charles the Fifth emperor, then residing in Spain, before he 
took shipping, died of the pestilence in the West Country, 
anno 1541 4 

LEONARD DIGGS, Esquire, was born in this county; one of 
excellent learning and deep judgment. His mind most inclined 
him to mathematics ; and he was the best architect in that age 
for all manner of buildings, for conveniency, pleasure, state, 
strength, being excellent at fortifications. Lest his learning 
should die with him, for the public profit he printed his Tec- 
tonicon," " Prognostic General," " Stratiotic," about " the 
Ordering of an Army," and other works. He flourished anno 
Domini 1556; and died, I believe, about the beginning of the 
reign of queen Elizabeth. 

Nothing else have I to observe of his name, save that here 
ditary learning may seem to run in the veins of his family ; 
witness, Sir Dudley Diggs of Chilham castle in this county, 
made Master of the Rolls 1636, whose abilities will not be for- 

* In Britannia, in Kent. f In suis Nseniis 

Weever s Funeral Monuments, p. 853. 

Leonard Digges resided at Wootton Court in this county, which was sold 
his son Thomas, father of Sir Dudley. F. 



WRITERS. 153 

gotten whilst our age hath any remembrance. This knight had 
a younger son, fellow of All Souls in Oxford, who, in the begin 
ning of our civil wars, wrote so subtile and solid a treatise, of 
the difference betwixt King and Parliament, that such royalists 
who have since handled that controversy have written plura, 
non plus ; yea, aliter rather than alia of that subject. 

THOM AS CHARNOCK was born in the Isle of Thanet, in this 
county, as by his own words doth appear.* He disco vereth in 
himself a modest pride ; modest, styling himself (and truly 
enough) the UNLETTERED SCHOLAR ; pride, thus immoderately 
boasting of his book discovering the mysteries of the philoso 
pher s stone : 

" For satisfying the minds of the students in this art, 

Then thou art worthy as many books as will lie in a cart. 

However, herein he is to be commended, that he ingeniously 
confesseth the persons (viz. William Byrd, prior of Bath, and 
Sir James, a priest of Sarisbury) who imparted their skill unto 
him. 

This Charnock, in the pursuance of the said stone (which 
so many do touch, few catch, and none keep), met with two very 
sad disasters. One on New-year s day (the omen worse than 
the accident) anno 1555, when his work unhappily fell on fire. 
The other three years after, when a gentleman, long owing him 
a grudge, paid him to purpose, and pressed him a soldier for the 
relieving of Calais. Whence we observe two things ; first, that 
this Charnock was no man of estate, seeing seldom, if ever, a 
subsidy-man is pressed for a soldier ; secondly, that though he 
practised surgery ,t yet he was not free of that society, who, by 
the statute 32d Hen. VIII. are exempted from bearing armour. 

But the spite of the spite was, that this was done within a 
month J (according to his own computation, which none can 
confute) of the time wherein certainly he had been made mas 
ter of so great a treasure. Such miscarriages, frequent in this 
kind, the friends of this art impute to the envy of evil spirits 
maligning mankind so much happiness ; the foes thereof con 
ceive that chemists pretend (yea, sometimes cause) such casu 
alties to save their credits thereby. He was fifty years old 
anno 1574 ; and the time of his death is unknown. 

FRANCIS THINNE was born in this county, and from his 
infancy had an ingenuous inclination to the study of antiquity, 
and especially of pedigrees. Herein he made such proficiency, 
that he was preferred, towards the end of the reign of queen 
Elizabeth, to be an herald, by the title of Lancaster. A gentle 
man painful, and well deserving, not only of his own office, but 
all the English nation. Whosoever shall peruse the voluminous 

* In his Breviary, p. 298. f Theatrum Chymicum Britannia, p. 176. 

+ In his Breviary of Philosophy, cap. 4. 



154 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

works of Raphael Holinshed, will find how much he was 
assisted therein by the help of Mr. Thinne, seeing the shoulders 
of Atlas himself may be weary, if sometime not beholden to 
Hercules to relieve him. He died 15 .. 

EGBERT GLOVER, son to Thomas Glover and Mildred his 
wife, was born at Ashford in this county.* He addicted him 
self to the study of heraldry, and in the reward of his pains was 
first made a Pursuivant Porcullis, and then Somerset herald. 
When the earl of Derby was sent into France, to carry the Gar 
ter to king Henry the Third, Mr. Glover attended the embassage, 
and was, as he deserved, well rewarded for his pains.f He by 
himself in Latin began a book, called " The Catalogue of Ho 
nour of our English Nobility," with their arms and matches. 
Being the first work in that kind, he therein traced untrodden 
paths ; and therefore no wonder if such who since succeeded 
him in that subject have found a nearer way, and exceed him in 
accurateness therein.^ Being old rather in experience than 
years, he died not forty-six years old, anno 1583 ; and lieth 
buried under a comely monument in Saint Giles without Crip- 
plegate, London, on the south wall of the choir. Let Mr. Cam- 
den s commendation pass for his epitaph: "Artis Heraldicee 
studiosissimus, peritissimusque, qui in Feecialium Collegio 
Somerset! titulum gessit, Robertus Gloverus." 

THOMAS MILLS, sister s son to Robert Glover aforesaid, 
was born at Ashford in this county, and, following his uncle s 
direction, applied himself to be eminent in the genealogies of 
our English nobility. If the expression were as properly pre 
dicated of a nephew as of the next brother, one might say, he 
raised up seed unto his uncle Glover, in setting forth his " Cata 
logue of Honour " in English, as more useful therein, because 
chiefly of our national concernment. He was employed on a 
message of importance from queen Elizabeth unto Henry the 
Fourth king of France, being then in Normandy ; which trust 
he discharged with great fidelity, and incredible celerity, being 
returned home with a satisfactory answer to her highness before 
she could believe him arrived there. In memory of which ser 
vice he had given him, for the crest of his arms, a chapeau with 
wings, to denote the Mercuriousness of this messenger. He 
died anno 16 . . 

JOHN PHILPOT was born at Faulkston, in this county, and 
from his childhood had a genius inclining him to the love of 
antiquity. He first was made a Pursuivant extraordinary, by 

* Out of his epitaph on his monument. 

f Weaver s Funeral Monuments. 

% Ralph Brooke, York ; Augustine Vincent, Windsor Herald. 

Britannia, in his Description of Berkshire. 



WRITERS BENEFACTORS. 155 

the title of Blanch Lion, then in ordinary, by name of Rouge- 
Dragon, and afterwards Somerset herald. He made very 
pertinent additions to the second edition of Mr. Camden s Re 
mains ; and deserved highly well of the city of London, proving, 
in a learned and ingenious book, that gentry doth not abate 
with apprenticeship, but only sleepeth during the time of their 
indentures, and awaketh again when they are expired. Nor did 
he contribute a little to the setting forth of his uncle s " Cata 
logue of Honour." He died anno 1645, and was buried in 
Bennet, Paul s-wharf. 

THOMAS PLAYFERD was born in this county, as some of his 
nearest relations have informed me. He was bred fellow of 
Saint John s College in Cambridge, and chosen 1597 to succeed 
Peter Barrow in the place of Margaret Professor. His fluency 
in the Latin tongue seemed a wonder to many, though since 
such who have seen the sun admire no more at the moon ; 
doctor Collins not succeeding him so much in age, as exceeding 
him in eloquence. 

The counsel of the apostle is good, Qpovtiv els o-w^poveTr. 
His foe-friends commending of him, and his own conceiting of 
himself, made too deep an impression on his intellectuals. It 
added to his distemper, that when his re-election to his place 
(after his last two years end) was put into the Regent-house, a 
great doctor said, " Detur Digniori." However, he held his 
professorship until the day of his death, 1609 ; and lieth buried, 
with an hyperbolical epitaph, in St. Botolph s in Cambridge. 

JOHN Bois, D.D., was descended of a right ancient and 
numerous family in this county,* deriving themselves from J. 
de Bosco, entering England with William the Conqueror, and 
since dispersed into eight branches extant at this day in their 
several seats.f Our John was bred fellow of Clare-hall in 
Cambridge, and afterwards preferred dean of Canterbury, famous 
to posterity for his Postils in defence of our Liturgy. So pious 
his life, that his adversaries were offended that they could not be 
offended therewith. A great prelate in the church did bear him 
no great good-will for mutual animosities betwixt them, whilst 
gremials in the university ; the reason, perchance, that he got 
no higher preferment, and died (as I conjecture) about the 
year 1625. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC-! 
Sir JOHN PHILPOT was born in this county, where his family 

* Now all extinct, except the issue of the late antiquary of Sandwich, who are 
derived from a remote younger branch, Vincent Boys, in the time of queen Eliza 
beth ED. 

f Villare Cantianum, p. 251. 

J To the Benefactors to the Public in this county should be added the name of 
William Caxton, who is placed by Dr. Fuller in Cambridgeshire ED. 



156 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

hath long resided at Upton-court, in the parish of Sibbertswood. 
He was bred a citizen and grocer in London, whereof he became 
mayor, 1378. 

In the second of king Richard the Second our English seas 
wanted scouring, overrun with the rust of piracies, but chiefly 
with a canker fretting into them, one John Mercer, a Scot, with 
his fifteen Spanish ships ; to repress whose insolence, our Phil- 
pot on his own cost set forth a fleet, a project more proportion 
able to the treasury of a prince, than the purse of a private 
subject. His success was as happy as his undertaking honour 
able ; and Mercer brought his wares to a bad market, being 
taken with all his ships and rich plunder therein.* 

Two years after he conveyed an English army into Britain, in 
ships of his own hiring ; and with his own money released 
more than 1000 arms there, which the soldiers formerly en 
gaged for their victuals. But this industry of Philpot interpre- 
tatively taxed the laziness of others, the nobility accusing him 
(drones account all bees pragmatical) to the king, for acting 
without a commission. Yea, in that ungrateful age, under a 
child-king, " pro tan to rum sumptuum preemio, veniam vix 
obtinuit." However, he, who whilst living was the scourge of 
the Scots, the fright of the French, the delight of the Commons, 
the darling of the merchants, and the hatred of some envious 
lords, was at his death lamented, and afterwards beloved of all, 
when his memory was restored to its due esteem. 

WILLIAM SEVENOCK was born at Sevenoaks in this county; 
in allusion whereunto he gave seven acorns for his arms,t which 
if they grow as fast in the field of heraldry as in the common 
field, may be presumed to be oaks at this day. For it is more 
than 200 years since this William (bred a grocer at London) 
became, anno 1419, lord mayor thereof. He founded at Seven- 
oaks a fair free-school for poor people s children, and an alms- 
house for twenty men and women, which at this day is well 
maintained. J 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

Sir ANDREW JUD, son of John Jud, was born at Tunbridge 
in this county, bred a skinner in London, w T hereof he became 
lord mayor anno 1551. He built alms-houses nigh Saint Ellen s 
in London, and a stately free-school at Tunbridge in Kent, sub 
mitting it to the care of the company of Skinners. This fair 
school hath been twice founded in effect, seeing the defence 
and maintenance whereof hath cost the company of Skinners, 
in suits of law and otherwise, four thousand pounds. So care- 

* Stow s Chronicle, p. 281. 

f Stow s Survey of London. 

J Idem, p. 88. 

Dr. Willett, in his " Catalogue of good Works since the Reformation. 1 



BENEFACTORS. 157 

ful have they been (though to their own great charge) to see 
the will of the dead performed. 

WILLIAM LAMBE, Esquire, sometime a gentleman of the 
chapel to king Henry the Eighth, and in great favour with him, 
was born at Sutton-Valens in this county, where he erected an 
alms-house, and a well-endowed school.* He was a person 
wholly composed of goodness and bounty, and was as general 
and discreet a benefactor as any that age produced. Anno 1557, 
he began, and within five months finished, the fair conduit at 
Holborn-bridge, and carried the water in pipes of lead more 
than two thousand yards at his own cost, amounting to fifteen 
hundred pounds. The total sum of his several gifts, moderately 
estimated, exceeded six thousand pounds. He lies buried with 
his good works in Saint Faith s church under Saint PauFs; 
where this inscription (set up, it seems, by himself in his life 
time) is fixed on a brass plate to a pillar : 

" O Lamb of God, which sin didst talce away, 
And (as a Lamb} wast offered up for sin ; 
Where I (poor Lamb) went from thy flock astray, 
Yet thou, good Lord, vouchsafe thy Lamb to win 
Home to thy fold, and hold thy Lamb therein, 
That, at the day when Goals and Lambs shall sever, 
Of thy choice lambs, Lamb may be one for ever." 

The exact time of his death I cannot meet with ; but, by 
proportion, I conjecture it to be about 1580. 

FRANCES SIDNEY, daughter of Sir William, sister to Sir 
Henry (lord deputy of Ireland, and president of Wales), aunt 
to the renowned Sir Philip Sidney, was born (and probably at 
Penshurst, the ancient seat of the Sidneys) in this county ; a 
lady endowed with many virtues, signally charitable, expending 
much in large benefactions to the public. She bestowed on the 
abbey church of Westminster a salary of twenty pounds per 
annum for a divinity lecture ; and founded Sidney Sussex 
college in Cambridge, of which largely in my " Church His 
tory." She was relict of Thomas Ratcliff, the third earl of 
Sussex. This worthy lady died childless (unless such learned 
persons who received their breeding in her foundation may be 
termed her issue) on the ninth day of May, anno 1588, as ap- 
peareth by her epitaph.f 

Sir FRANCIS NETHERSOLE, Knight, born at NethersoleJ in 
this county, was bred fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, 
and afterwards became orator of the university. Hence he was 
preferred to be ambassador to the princess of the Union, and 
secretary to the lady Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia ; it is hard 

* Stow s Survey of London, p. 93. 

f On her monument in Westminster Abbey. F. 

j Nethersole House was pulled down about 50 years ago. ED. 



158 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

to say whether he was more remarkable for his doings or suffer 
ings in her behalf. He married Lucy, eldest daughter of Sir 
Henry Goodyear of Polesworth in Warwickshire, by whose 
encouragement (being free of himself to any good design) he 
hath founded and endowed a very fair school at Polesworth 
aforesaid, and is still living.* 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

SIMON, son of William LYNCH,t Gent, was born at Groves, 
in the parish of Staple, in this county, December 9, 1562. But 
see more of his character under this title in Essex, where his 
life and death were better known. 

MARY WATERS was born at Lenham in this county ; and 
how abundantly entitled to memorability, the ensuing epitaph 
in Markeshall church in Essex will sufficiently discover : 

" Here lieth the body of Mary Waters, the daughter and co 
heir of Robert Waters of Lenham in Kent, esquire, wife of Ro 
bert Honywood { of Charing in Kent, esquire, her only husband, 
who had at her decease, lawfully descended from her, three 
hundred sixty-seven children; sixteen of her own body, 
one hundred and fourteen grandchildren, two hundred twenty- 
eight in the third generation, and nine in the fourth. She lived 
a most pious life ; and in a Christian manner died here at Markes 
hall, in the ninety-third year of her age, and in the forty-fourth 
year of her widowhood, the eleventh of May, 1620." 

Thus she had a child for every day in the (though Leap) year, 
and one over. Here we may observe, that (generally) the high 
est in honour do not spread the broadest in posterity. For 
time was, when all the earls in England (and those then seven 
teen in number) had not, put together, so many sons and daugh 
ters, as one of them had, viz. Edward Somerset, earl of 
Worcester. And yet of both sexes he never had but 
thirteen. || But to return to Mistress Waters; she since 
hath been much out-stript in point of fruitfulness by one still 
surviving ; ^[ and therefore this worthy matron (in my mind) is 
more memorable on another account, viz. for patient weathering 
out the tempest of a troubled conscience, whereon a remarkable 
story dependeth. Being much afflicted in mind, many minis 
ters repaired to her, and amongst the rest the Reverend Mr. John 

* He died in 1652 ED. 

t The last of the Lynches of Grove were, Sir William Lynch, K. B. and his 
younger brother Dr. John Lynch, dean of Canterbury. Sir William s widow died 
at Grove in 1808. ED. 

J The last of the Markshall branch of Honywood was General Honywood, who 
devised it to his remote collateral relation the late Filmer Honywood, esq. M.P. 
for Kent, on whose death it came to his nephew William Honywood, esq. M.P. 
younger brother to the late Sir John Honywood, bart ED. 

$ Camden, in his Elizabeth, anno 1589. 

|| Mills, in his Catalogue of Honour, p. 106. 

if Dame Hester Temple. See Memorable Persons in Buckinghamshire. ED, 



MEMORABLE PERSONS. 159 

Fox, than whom no more happy an instrument to set the joints 
of a broken spirit. All his counsels proved ineffectual, insomuch 
that, in the agony of her soul, having a Venice-glass in her hand, 
she brake forth into this expression, ff I am as surely damned 
as this glass is broken;" which she immediately threw with vio 
lence to the ground. 

Here happened a wonder: the glass rebounded again, and was 
taken up whole and entire. I confess it is possible (though 
difficult) so casually to throw as brittle a substance, that, light 
ing on the edges, it may be preserved ; but happening immedi 
ately in that juncture of time, it seemed little less than miracu 
lous. 

However the gentlewoman took no comfort thereat (as some 
have reported, and more have believed) ; but continued a great 
time after (short is long to people in pain) in her former dis 
consolate condition without any amendment ; until at last, 
God, the great clock-keeper of time, who findeth out the fittest 
minutes for his own mercies, suddenly shot comfort like light 
ning into her soul ; which once entered, ever remained therein 
(God doth not palliate cures, what he heals it holds) ; so that 
she led the remainder of her life in spiritual gladness. This she 
herself told to the Reverend Father Thomas Morton, bishop of 
Duresme, from whose mouth I have received this relation. 

In the days of queen Mary she used to visit the prisons, and 
to comfort and relieve the confessors therein. She was present 
at the burning of Mr. Bradford in Smithfield ; and resolved to 
see the end of his suffering, though so great the press of people, 
that her shoes were trodden off, and she forced thereby to go 
barefoot from Smithfield to Saint Martin s before she could 
furnish herself with a new pair for her money. Her dissolution 
happened, as is aforesaid, anno 1620. 

NICHOLAS WOOD was born at Halingborne in this county, 
being a landed man, and a true labourer. He was afflicted with 
a disease called Boitlimia, or Caninus Apetitus ; insomuch that 
he would devour at one meal what was provided for twenty men, 
eat a whole hog at a sitting, and at another time thirty dozen 
of pigeons, whilst others make mirth at his malady.* Let us 
raise our gratitude to the goodness of God, especially when he 
giveth us appetite enough for our meat, and yet meat too much 
for our appetite ; whereas this painful man spent all his estate 
to provide provant for his belly, and died very poor about the 
year 1630. 

We will conclude this topic of Memorable Persons with a 
blank mention of him whose name hitherto I cannot exactly at 
tain, being an ingenuous yeoman in this county, who hath two 

* Sandys, in his notes on the Eighth Book of Ovid s Metamorphoses, p. 162. 



160 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

ploughs fastened together so finely, that he plougheth two fur 
rows at once, one under another, and so stirreth up the land 
twelve or fourteen inches deep, which in so deep ground is very 
good.* Scholars know that Hen-dia-duo is a very thrifty figure 
in rhetoric ; and how advantageous the improvement of this de 
vice of a twin plough may be to posterity, I leave to the skilful 
in husbandry to consider. 

LORD -MAYORS. 

1. William Sevenock, son of William Rumshed, of Sevenoaks, 

Grocer, 1418. 

2. Thomas Hill, son of William Hill of Hilstone, Grocer, 1484. 

3. Richard Chawry, son of William Chawry of Westram, Salter, 

1494. 

4. Andrew Jud, son of John Jud, of Tonbridge, Skinner, 1550. 

5. John Rivers, son of Richard Rivers, of Penshurst, Grocer, 

1573. 

6. Edward Osburne, son of Richard Osburne, of Ashford, Cloth- 

worker, 1583. 

7. Thomas Polloccil, son of William Polloccil, of Footscray, 

Draper, 1584. 

8. William Rowe, son of Thomas Rowe, of Penshurst, Ironmon 

ger, 1592. 

9. Cuthbert Aket, son of Thomas Aket, of Dartford, Draper, 

1626. 

THE NAMES OF THE GENTRY OF THIS COUNTY, f 

RETURNED BY THE COMMISSIONERS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF KING HENRY 

THE SIXTH, ANNO 1433. 

Henry archbishop of Canterbury, and Robert de Poynings, 
knight ; Richard Widvile, and John Perye, (knights for the 
shire) ; Commissioners to take the oaths. 

Willielmi prioris ecclesiae Prioris de Tunbregge. 

Christi Canter. Prioris de Bilsington. 

Prioris de Rouchester. Prioris de Horton. 

Abbatis Sancte Radgundis. Rogeri Heron, magistri Coll. 

Abbatis de Langedon. de Maydston. 

Abbatis de Boxle. Thomse Ward, rectoris ec- 

Abbatis de Lesnes. clesiee de Wroham. 

Prioris Sancti Georgii Cartur. Thomse Mome, rectoris ec- 

Prioris de Ledes. clesise de Dele. 

* Hartlib s Legacy, p. 6. 

f There are still remaining out of this list, Oxenden, Finch, Monins (a younger 
branch), Twisden, Toke, Carter of Crundal, probably ancestor of William Carter 
of Canterbury, M. D. The long-standing names of Haute, Cheyney, Clifford, 
Isaac, Septuans, Norton, Malmain, Apulderfield, Goldwell, Hadde, Wotton, Ro 
berts of Goudhurst, Barham, Cobham, Brent, Fineaux, have been long extinct. 
The following old families became extinct in the last century ; Guilford, St. 
Leger, Walsingham, Digges, Aucher, Watton, Colepepper, Hardres, Engham, 
Lovelace, Monins, Godfrey. ED. 



GENTRY. 



161 



Henri ci Benwortham, rectoris 

ecclesiee de Bourne. 
Mathei Ashton, prepositi Coll. 

de Wingham. 
Will. Palmer, rectoris eccl. 

de Smerden. 
Rich. Corden, archidiaconi 

Roffensis. 
Johannis Gladwyn, magistri 

Collegii de Cobham. 
Will. Lyef, rectoris ecclesiee 

de Heriettesham. 
Johan. Corwel, magistri de 

Stode. 
Roberti rectoris ecclesise de 

Redelegh. 
Fratris Andree Birchford, mil. 

de Swynfeld, magistri Hosp. 

de Osprenge. 
Simonis Chepynden, rectoris 

ecclesise de Wornesel. 
Johannis Petthe, mil. 
Rogeri Chamberleyn, mil. 
Galfridi Louther. 
Johannis Darsel. 
W T illielmi Haute. 
Willielmi Cheyney. 
Willielmi Clifford. 
Edwardi GilfFord. 
Rogeri Cliderowe. 
Thomse Browne. 
Reignaldi Peckham. 
Johannis Seyntleger. 
Johannis Bamburgh. 
Lodewici Clifford. 
Willielmi Garnel. 
Johannis Cheyney. 
Thomse Walsingham. 
Willielmi Warner. 
Johannis Dennis de Welle. 
Valentini Baret. 
Willielmi Manston. 
Johannis Berton. 
Johannis Isaac. 
Thomse Ballard. 
Willielmi Septuans. 
Willielmi Pikhill. 
Thomse Septuans. 
Johannis Greneford. 

VOL. II. M 



Edmundi Hardes. 
Johannis Digges. 
Edwardi Lymsey, 
Johannis Shyngleton. 
Richardi Bamme. 
Richardi Chiche. 
Roberti Shandeford. 
Willielmi Frogenale. 
Richardi Combe. 
Thomse Betenham. 
Johannis Kelsham. 
Edmundi Passhele. 
Henrici Home de Apledre. 
Thomee Achier. 
Johannis Cokeham de Hoo, 
Roberti Watten. 
Stephani Cossington, 
Willielmi Channz. 
Rogeri Honyngton. 
Johannis Home de Lenham. 
Walteri Colepepar. 
Nicholai Colepepar. 
Willielmi Burys. 
Willielmi Gullby. 
Johannis Norton. 
Johannis Feerby de Paulstrey, 
Johannis Erhithe. 
Stephani Norton. 
Willielmi Kereby. 
Rogeri Appulton. 
Roberti Mollyngton. 
Willielmi Isle de Sondrish, 
Willielmi Hodestle. 
Thomse Hardes. 
Johannis Oxenden. 
Thomee Brokhill de Saltwode. 
Nichol. Brokhill de Saltwode, 
Adomari Digge. 
Wiliielmi Bertyn. 
Edwardi Seint John. 
Richardi Malman. 
Roberti Cappes. 
Johannis Vinche. 
Richardi Horn de Westwell. 
Will. Lane de Cantuaria. 
Will. Chilton de eadem. 
Will. Benet de eadem. 
Will. Bellington de eadem. 
Joh. Rose de eadem. 



162 



WORTHJES OF KENT. 



Will. Osborn de eadem. 

Rob. Stopingdon de eadem. 

Gilbert! Germayn. 

Thomse Normayne de Cant. 

Johannis Foochunt de eadem. 

Willielmi Bryan de eadem. 

Richardi Curteler de eadem. 

Richard! Prat de eadem. 

Edmundi Wykes de eadem. 

Willielmi Baker de eadem. 

Rogeri Manston. 

Johannis Hetesle. 

Thomas Salisbury. 

Johannis Carleton. 

Johannis Gotysle. 

Johannis Dandylion. 

Willielmi Isaak. 

Thomae Apuldrefeld. 

Willielmi Steveday. 

Johannis Moyne. 

Johannis Gerwinton. 

Johannis Feneaux. 

Will. Sutton de Northburne. 

Stephani Monyn. 

Johannis Broke de Snaxton. 

Johannis Petit de Chartham. 

Willielmi Valence. 

Tho. Hollys de Godmarsham. 

Johannis Rolling. 

Nicholai Hame. 

Roberti Yerde. 

Richardi Bruyn. 

Willielmi Brokman. 

Guidoni Elys. 

Thomae Simond de Hertley. 

Johannis May. 

Thomas H or den. 

Thomae Burgeys. 

Johannis Golde. 

Johannis Hoigges. 

Thomae Springet. 

Rogeri Twisden. 

Johannis Hore. 

Johannis Derby. 

Will. Ceilings de Thameto. 

Walter! Gore. 

Thomas Champion. 

Johan. Chamberlain. 

Henr. Hicks de Rouchestre. 



Willielmi Sidenore. 

Radulfi Towke. 

Johannis Wareve de Wy. 

Will. Goldwell de Godyinton. 

Will. Goldwell de Chart. 

Richardi Sprot. 

Thomas Chiterynden. 

Will. Enfynge. 

Will. Spert. 

Rob. Tropham de Wingham. 

Roberti Goodebarne. 

Thomas Bevesle. 

Will. luenet. 

Johannis luenet. 

Johannis Brenchesle, sen. 

Johannis Brenchesle, jun. 

Laur. Betleston de Bydyn- 
den. 

Joh. Pitlesden de Tynderdi. 

Thomas Hames de eadem. 

Thomas Berkynden. 

Thomae Gosebourne. 

Will. Gosebourne. 

Johannis Edyngham. 

Richardi Edyngham. 

Hugonis Godwyn. 

Peteri Colepeper. 

Walt. Baker de Maidston. 

Steph. Colney de eadem. 

Laur. Stonstreet de eadem. 

Will. Enton. 

Thomas Mellere de Lenham. 

Caur. Mellere de eadem. 

Hen. Boy cote. 

Will. Hadde. 

Roberti Purse. 

Johannis Laurence. 

Roberti Norton. 

Richardi Dawdemere. 

Willielmi Roger. 

Thomae Grymston. 

Johannis Tuttesham. 

Galfrid Yong. 

Simonis Goldsmith. 

Johannis Croweche de Water- 
in gbery. 

Joh. Reve. 

Joh. Westbery. 

Thomas Stydolf. 



GENTRY. 



163 



Tho. Hilles de Brenchesle. 

Laur. Hilles. 

Job. Slyhand. 

Wil. Woadlond de Westgate. 

Job. Philpot de eadem. 

Th omae Tenbam de Thaneto. 

Thome Pawlyn de Thaneto. 

Job. Roger de Whitstaple. 

Johannis Salmon de Whit- 
staple. . 

Will. Hall de Eastrey. 

Tho, Hunt de Cruddeswode. 

Will. Licheffeld de Norbourn. 

Henrici Bynton. 

Adde Chanceler. 

Thome Newman de Chistlet. 

Richardi Bomoure de eadem. 

Thome Causant de eadem. 

Will. Philip de Hierne. 

Thomas Loucher. 

Roberti Lovelass. 

Thomas Cadbery. 

Thomse Rokesle. 

Roberti Virle. 

Job. Rose de Shorham. 

Will. Holden de Hunten. 

Job. Rolff de Wrotham. 

Johannis Swan de Southfleet. 

Johannis Mellere de Wimel- 
ingwelde. 

Jobannis Eythorst de Tenham. 

Will. Blosme de Tenderden. 

Jacobi Budde de Whittresham. 

Richardi Combre. 

Willielmi Wotton de Denton. 

Johannis Biunham. 

Roberti Hotbe de Ryvere. 

Thomse Willok de Wy. 

Will. Willok de Wy. 

Johannis Atte Cambre de 
Bokton Aluph. 

Johannis Sandre de Bokton 
Aluph. 

Johannis Colman de Eastwell. 

Jo. Walter de Eastwell. 

Tho. Richard de W r y. 

Thomas Cartere de Crundale. 

Will. Lucas de Essheford. 

Rich. Atte Sole Kenington. 

M 



Johahnis Roberd de eadem, 
Johannis Sandre de Cony- 
broke. 

Thomse Chapman. 
Jobannis Ely 
Will. Ixning. 

Nicholai Roger de Mersham. 
Nicholai Kenet. 
Johannis Weston. 
Henrici Tepynden. 
Barthol. Atte Boure. 
Will. Bregges de Ore. 
Reginald! Drylonde. 
Nicholai Dane. 
Richardi Langedon. 
Stephani Hoigge. 
Simonis Harry. 
Willielmi Iden. 
Johannis Hewet de Chertham. 
Willielmi Egerden. 
Johan. Bertlot de Cantuaria. 
Johannis Lynde de eadem. 
Rob. Becket de eadem. 
Johan. Edle de eadem. 
Job. Edmond de eadem. 
Johan. Osburn de eadem. 
Johan. Pikerel de eadem. 
Laur. Winter de eadem. 
Will. Atte Wode de eadem. 
Thomas Cherch de eadem. 
Johan. Bronns de eadem. 
Rob. Pycot de eadem. 
Rich. Galding de eadem. 
Thomas Pollard de eadem. 
Johan. Pende de eadem. 
Thomas Mott de eadem. 
Thomas Lamsyn de eadem. 
Job. Mallyng de eadem. 
Job. Cosyn de eadem. 
Job. Bertholt de eadem. 
David Marryes de eadem. 
Ade Body de eadem. 
Henrici Piers de eadem. 
Job. Robart de Cranebroke. 
Will. Hert de Wodecberche. 
Richardi Fawconer. 
Jobannis Bakke. 
Johannis Bereham. 
Johannis Bettenham. 
2 



164 



WORTHIES OF KENT. 



Johan. Watte de Hankherst. 

Will. Bernes de eadem. 

Richard! Hodingfold. 

Nicholai Piers. 

Willielmi Piers de Molash. 

Richardi Monyn. 

Willielmi Cobham. 

Johannis Baily de Hoo. 

Roberti Reynold. 

Henrici Rowe. 

Richardi Groucherst de Hors- 
monden. 

Johannis Jud. 

Walteri Fletcher de Tun- 
bridge. 

Johannis Picot de eadem. 
Willielmi Randolf de eadem. 
Rich. Johnson de eadem. 
Simonis Fitzraufe. 
Tho. Barbour de Wrotham. 
Willielmi Menyware. 
Johannis Rowe. 
Richardi Ruxton. 
Stephani Atte Bourn de Gon- 

therst. 

Will. Robert de eadem. 
Joh. Thorp de Gillingham. 
Jo. Spencer de Melton. 
Joh. Spencer de eadem, jun. 
Jo. Petyge de Gravesend. 
Joh. Pete de eadem. 
Will. Doget de eadem. 
Robert Baker de eadem. 
Joh. Igelynden de Bydinden. 
Richardi Smith de Shorne. 
Michaelis atte Dean. 
Richardi Lewte. 
Johannis Bottiler de Clyne. 
Thomee Gardon de eadem. 
Thomae Peverel de Cukston. 
Joh. Chambrede eadem. 
Will. Holton de Heo. 
Simonis Walsh de Creye. 
Johannis Mayor de Rokesle. 
Tho. Shelley de Farnburgh. 
Joh. Mellere de Orpington. 
Joh. Shelley de Bixle. ^ 
Willielmi Bery. 
Johannis Bery. 



Thomse Cressel. 
Johannis Manning de Code- 
ham. 

Roberti Merfyn. 
Roberti Chesman de Green 
wich. 

Philippi Dene de Woolwich. 
Radulphi Langle de Becon- 

ham. 

Will. Wolty de eadem. 
Joh. Smith de Sevenock. 
Joh. Cartere of Nemesing. 
Tho. Palmer de Otford. 
Nich. atte Bore de Bradest. 
Rog. Wodeward de eadem. 
Willielmi Rothel. 
Roberti Allyn. 
Johannis Knolls. 
Richardi Rokesle. 
Johannis Steynour. 
Radolphi Stanhall de Wester- 
ham. 

Rich, Yong de eadem. 
Rich. Paris de eadem. 
Tho. Martin de Edenbregge. 
Thomse Peny. 

Joh. Dennet de Edonbregge. 
Will. Kirketon de Fankham. 
Johannis Crepehegge. 
Johannis Hellis de Dernthe. 
Johan. Chympeham. 
Rob. Coats de Stone. 
Roberti Stonestrete de Ive- 

chesch. 

Johan. Hogelyn de eadem. 
Johannis Lewys. 
Petri Thurban. 
Thomas Beausrere. 
Steph. Ive de Hope, sen. 
Will. Newland de Broklaad. 
Hen. Aleyne de eadem. 
Willielmi" Wolbale. 
Johannis Creking. 
Stephani Wyndy. 
Henrici Dobil. 
Simonis Odierne. 
Rob. Hollynden de Stelling. 
Will. Bray de eadem. 
Petri Neal de Elmestede. 



SHERIFFS. 



165 



Steph. Gibbe de Stonting. 

Rich. Shotwater de eadem. 

Rogeri Hincle de Elham. 

Andree Wodehil de eadem. 

Nicolai Campion. 

Will. Atte Berne de Lymyne. 

Johan. Cartere deAbyndon. 

Rich. Knight de Stelling. 

Will. Kenet de Bonyngton. 

Jacobi Skappe. 

Jacobi Godefray. 

Joh. Baker de Caldham. 

Roberti Dolyte. 

Roberti Woughelite. 

Joh. Chilton de Newington. 

Tho. Chylton de eadem. 

Tho. Tumour de Rochester. 



Joh. Cust de eadem. 

Joh. Houchon de eadem. 

Stephani Riviel. 

Warini Wade. 

Thomae Groveherst. 

Will. Berford de Newington. 

Joh. Grendon de Upcherche, 

Johannis Hethe de Bakchild. 

Rich. Groveherst de Synding- 

bourn. 

Joh. Sonkyn de eadem. 
P. Haidon de Borden. 
Thomse Waryn de Lenham. 
Rich. Dene de Hedecrone, 
Walteri Terold. 
Hugonis Brent. 



SHERIFFS/ 



HENRY II. 
Anno 

1 Rualons. 

2 Radul. Picot, for six years. 
8 Hugo de Dovera, for seven 

years. 

15 Gerv. de Cornhilla, for six 
years. 

21 Gervat. et Rob. films Ber- 

nardi. 

22 Rob. films Bernardi, for 

eight years. 

30 Will, filius Nigelli. 

31 Alanus de Valoigns, for 

four years. 

RICH. I. 

1 Regnal, de Cornhill, for six 
years. 

7 Will, de Sancta Mardalia. 
Walt, filius Dermand. 

8 Reginald, de Cornhill. 

9 Idem. 
10 Idem. 



REX. JOHAN. 



Anno 

1 Reginald de Cornhill, for 

eleven years. 

12 Johan. Fitz Vinon et Re 
ginald, de Cornhill, for 
six years, 

HENR. III. 

1 Hubert de Burgo, Hugo de 

Windlesore, for seven 

years. 
8 Hub. et Roger de Grimston 

for three years. 
11 Huber. de Burozo, et 

Will, de Brito, for six 

years. 
1 7 Bartholomeus de Criol, for 

six years. 

24 Humf. de Bohun, Comes 

Essex. 

25 Idem. 

26 Petrus de Sabaudia et Ber 

tram de Criol. 



* The Cobhams, Colepeppers, Norwoods, and St. Legers, appear very early in the 
list of Sheriffs. Afterwards, among the principal, Septuans, Guilford, Digges, Dar- 
rell, Clifford, Haute, Cheyney, Waller, Fogge, Scott, Isaac, Roberts, Kemp, Wal- 
singham, Wotton, Vane, Sonds, Poynings, Wyat, Hart, Sidley, Crisp, Tufton, Cro- 
mer, Hales, Boys, Baker, Fineux, Hardres, Leonard, Palmer, Twisden, Knatchbull, 
Aucher, Filmer, Dixwell, Lewknor, Polhill, Brockman, and Honywood. ED. 



166 



WORTHIES OF KENT. 



Anno 

27 B.ertram de Criol et Job. 

de Cobham. 

28 John de Cobham, for five 

years. 
33 Reginald de Cobham,, for 

eight years. 
Walterus de Bersted. 

41 Reginaldus de Cobham. 

42 Fritho. Poysorer. 

43 Idem. 

44 Johannes de Cobham. 

45 Idem. 

46 Idem. 

47 Rob. Walerand. 
Tho. de la Wey. 

48 Rogeras de Layburne. 

49 Idem. 

50 Rog. et Hen. de Burne, for 

three years. 
53 Steph. de Penecester, et 

Henricus de Ledes, for 

three years. 
56 Henricus Malemeins. 

EDW. I. 

1 Hen. Malemenis Mort. 

2 Will, de Hents. 

3 Will, de Valoigns, for four 

years. 

7 Robertas de Schochon. 

8 Idem. 

9 Idem. 

10 Idem. 

11 Petrus de Huntinfend. 

12 Idem. 

13 Idem. 

14 Hamo de Gatton. 

15 Will, de Chelesend. 

16 Idem. 

17 Idem. 

18 Will, de Brimshete. 

19 Idem. 

20 Johan. de North wod. 

21 Johannes de Burne. 

22 Johan. de Burne. 

23 Idem. 

24 Idem. 

25 Will. Trussel. 



Anno 

26 Will. Trussel. 

27 Hen. de Apuldrefeld. 

28 Johan. de Northwod. 

29 Hen. de Cobham. 

30 Idem, 

31 Warresius de Valoynes. 

32 Idem. 

33 Johan. de Northwod. 

34 Idem. 

35 Will, de Cosington. 

36 Galfridus Colepepar, for 

four years. 

EDW. II. 

1 Henricus de Cobham. 

2 Johan. de Blound, for five 

years. 

7 Will, de Basings et Johan 

nes de Haulo, jun. 

8 Idem. 

9 Hen. de Cobham. 

10 Johannes de Malemeyns 

de Hoo. 

11 Idem. 

Johannes de Fremingham. 

12 Joh. et Hen. de Sardenne. 

13 Hen. et Will. Septuans. 

14 (Nul. tit. Com, in hoc ro- 

tulo.} 

15 Williel. Stevens et Radul- 

phus Savage. 

16 (Nil I. tit. Com. in rotulo.} 

17 Johannes de Shelvinge. 

18 Johannes de Fremingham. 

19 Idem. 

EDW. III. 

1 Radulph. de Sancto Laur, 

2 Will, de Orlaston. 

3 Joh. de Shelvingges, 
Will, de Orlaston. 

4 Johannes de Bourne, 
J.ohannes de Shelvingges. 

5 Johannes de Bourne. 

6 Tho. de Brockhull. 
Laur. de Sancto Laur. 

7 Tho. de Brockhull. 

8 Steph. de Cobhamr 



SHERIFFS. 167 

Anno Anno 

9 Steph. de Cobham. 30 Gilb. de Helles. 

10 Idem. , 31 Will, de Apelderfeld. 

11 Tho. de Brockhull. 32 Radulphus Fremingham. 

12 Will. Morants. 33 Williel. Wakenade. 

13 Idem, 34 Will, de Apelderfeld. 

14 Henricus de Valoyns. 35 Idem. 

15 Johannes de Mereworth. 36 Idem. 

15 Johannes de Widleston, 37 Willielmi Pimpe. 

Johannes de Mereworth. 38 Will, de Apelderfeld. 

17 Johannes de Widleston, for 39 Johannes Colepepar. 

four years. 40 Idem, 

21 Williel. de Langele. 41 Ric us Atte Les. 

22 Johan. de Fremingham. 42 Johannes de Brockhull. 

23 Willielmi de Langele. 43 Johannes Colepepar. 
Arnaldus Sauvage. 44 Will, de Apelderfeld. 

24 (Nul. tit. Com. in hoc ro- 45 Williel. Pimp. 

tulo.) 46 Johannes Barry. 

25 Will, de Langele. 47 Galfr. Colepepar. 

26 Jacobus Lapin. 48 Rob. Notingham. 

27 Will, de Apelderfeld. 49 Williel. Pimpe. 

28 Jacobus Lapin. 50 Nic. Atte Crouch. 

29 Reginal.de Duk, sive Dyk. 51 Henrici Apulderfeld. 

HENRY III. 

I. HUBERT de BURGO et HUGO de WINDLESORE. This is 
that Hubert so famous in our chronicles, late lord chamberlain unto 
king John, and lord chief justice of England. In this year of his 
shrievalty, he not only valiantly defended the castle of Dover 
against Lewis the French king s son, but also in a naval con 
flict overthrew a new supply of soldiers sent to him for his 
assistance. I behold this Hugo joined with him (as the shadow 
to the substance) as his under-sheriff, acting the affairs of the 
county in his absence. 

II. HUBERT de BUROZO* et WILL, de BRITO. This year, 
anno 1227, Hugo de Burgo (of whom immediately before) was, 
in the month of February, by the king made earl of Kent ; and, 
for a farther reward, had granted unto him the third penny of 
all the king s profits arising in the said tounty ; and Hubert de 
Burozo succeeded him in his office. But I humbly conceive him 
the same person, who was both Comes and Vice-comes of Kent at 
the same time, a conjunctiou often precedented in other coun 
ties; the rather, because this Hubert lived many years after, till 
at last he got the king s ill will for doing him so many good 
offices, not dying till the twenty-seventh year of his reign, anno 
1243. 

* Burozo is but our English borough, barbarously Latinized, and the same with 
Burgo. F. 



168 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

EDWARD I. 

20. JOHAN. de NORTHWOD. This was a right ancient fa 
mily in this county ; for I find, in the church of Minster in 
Sheppey, this inscription : 

" Hie jacent Rogerus Norwod et Boan uxor ejus, sepulti ante Conquestum." 

Possibly they might be buried here before the Conquest ; but 
the late character of the letter doth prove it a more modern 
inscription. The chief residence of the Norwods was a house 
of their own name in the parish of Milton-church, where they 
have many fair monuments, but with defaced epitaphs. One 
of their heirs was married into the family of the Nortons, of 
whom hereafter.* 

SHERIFFS. 
RICH. II. 
Anno Name and Arms. Place. 

1 Tho. de Cobham . . . Roundall. 

G. on a chevron O. three crescents S. 

2 Jo. de Fremingham . . Freming. 

3 Jac. de Peckham . . Yaldham. 

S. a chevron O. between three cross-croslets fitchee Arg. 

4 Will. Septuans . . . Milton. 

5 Arnald. Savage . . . Bobbing. 

Arg. six lioncels, three, two, and one, S. 

6 Tho. Brockhul . . . Cale-Hill. 

G. a cross engrailed, between twelve cross-croslets fitchee 

Arg. 
7 

8 Rob. Corby .... Boughton. 

9 Arnald. Savage . . . ut prius. 

10 Rad us Seintleger . . Ulcomb. 

Az. frettee Arg. ; a chief G. 

11 Will, de Guldeford . . Hempsted. 

O. a saltire betwixt four martlets S. 

12 Jacobus Peckham . . ut prius, 

13 Will. Burcestre . . . HAMPSHIRE. 

14 Rich, de Berham . . Berham. 

Arg. three bears S. two and one, muzzled O. 

15 Tho. Chich .... Dungeon. 

Az. three lions rampant, within a border Arg. 

16 Will. Barry .... Sevington. 

17 Joh, Fremingham. 

18 Tho. Colepeper . , . Pepenbury. 

Arg. a bend engrailed G. 

* In the fifth of king Henry the Eighth. 



SHERIFFS. 163 

Anno Name. Place. 

19 Will. Haut " . . . . Waddenhal. 

O. a cross engrailed G. 

20 Tho. Seintleger . . . ut prius. 

21 Nich. Potyne .... Queen- Co. 

22 Joh. Botiller .... Gravenev. 

Arg. on a chief S. three cups covered O. 

HENRY IV. 

1 Rob. Clifford .... Bobbing. 

Cheeky O. and Az. a fess within a border G. 

2 Tho. Lodelow . . . WILTSHIRE. 
Joh. Diggs .... Digs Court. 

G. on a cross Arg. five eaglets displayed S. 

3 Tho. Hyach. 

4 Rich. Cliderow . . . Goldstanton. 

Arg, on a chevron G. betwixt three spread-eagles S. five 

annulets O. 
5 

6 Valent. Baret .... Lenham. 

7 Hen. Horn. 

8 Edw. Haut .... ut prius. 

9 Will. Snayth. 

10 Reginald. Pimpe . . . Pimps Court. 

Arg. four barrulets G. ; on a chief S. a bar nubile of 
the first. 

11 Joh. Darel .... Cale-Hill. 

Az. a lion rampant O. crowned Arg. 

12 Will. Notebeame. 

HENRY V. 

1 Will. Clifford .... ut prius. 

2 Rob. Clifford .... ut prius. 

3 Will. Langley. 

4 Will. Darel .... ut prius. 

5 Joh. Darel . . . . . ut prius. 

6 Rich. Cliderow . . . ut prius. 

7 Joh. Burgh. 

8 Will. Haut Hautsburn. 

Arms, ut prius. 
9 
10 Joh. Darel .... ut prius. 

HENRY VI. 

1 Joh. Darel ut prius. 

2 Will. Cheney .... Shutland. 

Az. six lions rampant Arg. a canton Erm. 

3 Joh. Rykeld .... Eastlingham. 



170 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

Anno Name. Place. 

4 Will. Clifford . . . . ut prius. 

5 Will. Culpeper . . . Preston. 

Arms, ut prius. 

6 Tho. Ellis . . . , . . Burton. 

O, on a cross S. five crescents A. 

7 [AMP] Will. Scot . . Braborne. 

8 Joh. Peach .... Lullingston. 

9 Joh. Seintleger . . . ut prius. 

10 Edward Gulfort . ., . Halden. 

Arms, ut prius. 

11 Will. Burys .... Bromley. 

12 Rich. Wodveile . . . NORTHAMPTON. 

Arg. a fess and canton G. 

13 Will. Clifford . . . . ut prius. 

14 Will. Manston . . . Manston. 

15 Jacobus Fienis . .:,,..: Kemsing. 

Az. three lions rampant O. 

16 Rich. Waller .... Grome-Bride. 

S. three walnut-leaves O. between two bendlets Arg. 

17 Edw. Guldeford . . . ut prius. 

18 Gervasius Clifton . : Brabourn. 

S. semee de cinquefoils, a lion rampant Arg. 

19 Joh. Yeard .... Denton. 

20 Joh. Warner ,-. 1,.- . Foot s Cray. 

21 Will. Mareys . . . Ufton. 

22 Tho. Brown SURREY. 

S. three lions passant in bend, double cotised Arg. 

23 Will. Crowmer . . . Tunstal. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three ravens S. 

24 Joh. Thornbury . . Feversham. 

25 Will. Isley .... Sundridge. , . 

Erm. a fesse G. 

26 Will. Kene .... Well-Hall. 

27 Steph. Seintleger . . ut prius. , . . 

28 Hen. Crowmer . . . ut prius. , . . . 

29 Gervasius Clifton . . ut prius. 

30 Rob. Horn .... Horn s Place. 

31 Tho. Ballard .... Horton. 

32 Joh. Fogge .... Repton. 

33 Joh. Cheyney, mil. . ut prius. 

34 Phil. Belknap, arm. . The Moat. 

35 Alex. Eden, arm. . . Westwell. 

36 Joh. Guldeford, arm. . ut prius. 

37 Gervas. Clifton, mil. . ut prius. 

38 Tho. Brown, mil. et . ut prius. , 
Joh. Scot, arm. vicis. Vic. Scots-Hall. 

Arms, ut prius. , . 



SHERIFFS. 



171 



Anno 



EDW. IV. 



Name. 



1 Job. Isaac, arm. . 

2 Will, Peach, rail. 

3 Idem. 

4 Job. Diggs, arm. 

5 Alex. Clifford, arm. . 

6 Will. Haut, mil. . . 

7 Joh. Colepeper, mil. 

8 Rad. Seintleger, arm. 

9 Hen. Ferrers, arm. . 

10 Joh. Bromston, arm. 

11 Rich. Colepeper, arm. 

Arms, ut prius. 

12 Ja. Peckham, arm. 

13 Joh. Fogge, mil. 

14 Joh. Isley, arm. . . 

15 Will. Haut, mil. . . 

16 Joh. Green, arm. 

G. a cross croslet 
and S. 

17 Will. Cheyney, arm. 

18 Rich. Haut, arm. 

19 Rich. Lee, arm. . . 

20 Joh. Fogge, mil. 

21 Geo. Brown, mil. 

22 Rich. Haut, arm. . 

RICHARD III. 

1 Will. Haut, mil. . . . 

2 Joh. Banne . . . 

3 Ri. Brakenbury, mil. et . 
Will. Cheyney . . 

HENR. VII. 



Place. 

H owlets. 



. ut prius. 
. ut prius. 
. ut prius. 
. ut prius. 
. tit prius. * 
. WARWICKSHIRE. 
Preston. .? 
Oxenhoath. 

. ut prius. 

. ut prius. 
. ut prius. 
. Scadbury. 
Erm. within a border gobony Arg. 

. ut prius. 
. ut prius. 
, Delce. 

. ut prius. 
. ut prius. 



ut prius. 
Grench. 
The iMoat. 
ut prius. 



1 Will. Cheyney . 

2 Joh. Pymp, arm. 

3 Hen. Ferrers, mil. 

4 Walt. Roberts . 

5 Will. Boleyn, mil. 



. ut prius. 
. ut prius. 
. ut prius. 

Glastenbury., 
. NORFOLK. 

Arg. a chevron G. inter three bulls heads couped S. 
armed O. 

. ut prius. 
. ut prius. 
. Ollantie. 
Halden. 



6 Will. Scot, mil. . 

7 Joh. Darel, arm. 

8 Tho. Kemp, arm. 

9 Rich. Gulford, mil. 

Arms, ut prius. 
10 Joh. Peach, arm. 



172 



WORTHIES OF KENT. 



Anno 



Name. 



Place. 



11 Joh. Diggs, arm. . . ut prius. 

12 Ja. Walsingham, arm. . Scadbury. 

Paly of six Arg. and S. a fesse G. 

13 Lodow. Clifford, arm. . ut prius. 

14 Rob. Wotton, arm. . Bocton. 

Arg. a saltire engrailed S. 

15 Alex. Colepeper, arm. . ut prius. 

16 Tho. Eden, arm. 

17 Will. Scot, mil. . . . ut prius. 

18 Rad. Seintleger . . . ut prius. 

19 Will. Crowmer, arm. . ut prius. 

20 Joh. Langley, arm. . . Knowlton. 

21 Tho. Kemp, mil. 

22 Alex. Colepeper, arm. . ut prius. 

23 Henry Vaine . . . . Tunbridge. 

Az. three gauntlets sinister O. 

24 Reginald Peckham . . ut prius. 



HEN. VIII. 

1 Will. Crowmer, mil. 

2 Jacobus Diggs, arm. 

3 Tho. Boleyn, mil. 

4 Tho. Kemp, mil. 

5 Jo. Norton, mil. . . 

6 Alex. Colepeper, arm. 

7 Tho. Cheyney, arm. 

8 Will. Scot, mil. . . 

9 Tho. Boleyn, mil. . 

10 Joh. Crisps, arm. 

11 Joh. Wiltshire, mil. 

12 Joh. Roper, arm. 



ut prius. 
ut prius. 
ut prius. 

Northwood. 
ut prius. 
ut prius. 
ut prius. 
ut prius. 
Quekes. 
Stone. 



, Eltham. 

Party per fess Az. and O. a pale counterchanged, three 
roe-bucks 3 heads erased of the second. 

13 Rob. Sonds. arm. . . Town-place. 

Arg. three blackmoors heads couped proper between 
two chevronels S. 

14 Joh. Fogge, mil. 

15 Geo. Guldeford, mil. . ut prius. 

16 Will. Haut, mil. . . . ut prius. 

17 Hen. Vane, arm. . . ut prius. 

18 Will. Whetnal, arm. . Hextal. 

V. a bend Erm. 

19 Joh. Scot, mil. . . . ut prius. 

20 Will. Kemp, arm. 

21 Edw. Wotton, mil. . . ut prius. 

22 Will. Waller, mil. . . ut prius. 

23 Rich. Clement, mil. . . Ightham. 

24 Will. Finch, mil. . . Eastwell. 

Arg. a chevron between three griffins passant S. 



SHERIFFS. 173 

Anno Name. Place. 

25 Tho. Roberth, arm. . . Glastenbury. 

26 Tho. Ponings, mil. . . Ostenhanger. 

Barry of six O. and V. a bend G. 

27 Edw. Wotton, mil. . . ut prius. 

28 Tho. Wyat, mil. . . . Allington. 

29 Will. Haut, mil. . . . ut prius. 

30 Will. Sidney, mil. . . Penshurst. 

O. a pheon Az. 

31 Ant. Seintleger, mil. . ut prius. 

32 Anth. Sends, arm. . . ut prius. 

33 Reginald. Scot, mil. . . ut prius. 

34 Henry Iseley, mil. . . ut prius. 

35 Humph. Style, mil. . . Langley-pa. 

S. a fess engrailed frettee between three flowers-de-luce O. 

36 Joh. Fogge, mil. 

37 Percival Hart, mil. . . Lullingstone. 

38 Hen. Crisps, arm. 

EDWARD VI. 

1 Will. Sidley, arm. . -. Scadbury. 

Az. a fess vairy between three goats heads erased Arg. 
attired O. 

2 Geo. Harper, mil. . . Sutton. 

S. a lion rampant within a border engrailed G. 

3 Tho. Culpeper, arm. . ut prius. 

4 Tho. Wyat, mil. 

5 Hen. Isley, mil. . . . tit prius. 

6 Joh. Guldeford, mil. . ut prius. 

PHIL, et MAR. 

M. 1 Rob. Southwel, mil. . Merworth. 

M. 1 & 2 Will. Roper, arm. ut prius. 
2&3 Tho. Kemp, mil. 
3&4 

4 & 5 Geo. Vane, arm. . . ut prius. 

5 & 6 Tho. Wotton, arm. . ut prius. 

ELIZ. REG. 

1 Nich. Crisps, arm. 

2 Warh. Seintleger, arm. . ut prius. 

3 Joh. Tufton, arm. . . Hothfield. 

S. an eagle displayed Erm. a border Arg. 

4 Rich. Baker, arm. . . Sisingherst, 

Az. a fess O. between three swans heads erased, beaked G. 

5 Tho. Walsingham, arm. ut prius. 

6 Tho. Kemp, mil. 

7 Joh. Mayney, arm. 

Will. Isley, arm. . . . ut prius. 



174 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

Anno Name. Place. 

8 Johc Sidley, arm. . Southfleet. 

9 Will. Crowmer, arm. . ut prius. 

10 Joh. Brown, arm. . . Brown s-place. 

Az. a chevron between three escalops O. within a border 
engrailed G. 

11 Edw. Isaac, arm. . . . Patrick s-b. 

12 Joh. Leonard, arm. . . Chevening. 

O. on a fess G. three flowers- de-luce of the first. 

13 Wai. Mayne, sen. arm. . Spilsil. 

14 Tho. Vane, sen. miL . . Badsel. 

Arms, ut prius. 

15 Tho. Willoughby, arm. . Bore-place. 

O. frettee Az. 

16 Jacobus Hales, mil. . . Woodchurch. 

G. three arrows O. headed and feathered Arg. 

17 Joh. Tufton, arm. . . ut prius. 

18 Tho. Scot, mil. . . . ut prius. 

19 Edw. Boys, arm. . . Fredville. 

O. a griffin segreant S. within two borders G. 

20 Tho. Wotton, arm. . . ut prius. 

21 Tho. Copinger, arm. 

Bendy of six, O. and G. on a fess Az, three plates. 
Tho. Vane, arm. . . . ut prius. 

22 Tho. Sonds, arm. . . ut prius. 

23 Geo. Hart, mil. . . . ut prius. 

24 Rich. Baker, mil. . . ut prius. 

25 Just. Champneys, arm. . Hall-place. 

Per pale Arg. and S. a lion rampant within a border en 
grailed counterchanged. 

26 Nich. Sonds, arm. . . ut prius. 

27 Will. Cromer, arm. . . ut prius. 

28 Jacobus Hales, mil, . . ut prius. 

29 Joh. Fineux, arm. . . Haw-court. 

V. a chevron between three eaglets displayed O. 

30 Rich. Hardres, arm. 

31 Will. Sidley, arm. . , ut prius. 

32 Tho. Willoughby, arm. . ut prius. 

33 Sampson Leonard, arm. ut prius. 

34 Rob. Bing, arm. . . . Wrotham. 

Quarterly S. and Arg. a lion rampant in the first quarter 
of the second. 

35 Mich. Sond, arm. . . Throughley. 

Arms, nt prius. 

36 Edw. Wotton, mil. . . ut prius. 

37 Tho. Palmer, arm. 

38 Moile Finch, mil. . . Eastwell. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three griffins passant S. 

39 Tho. Kemp, arm. 



SHERIFFS. 175 

Anno Name. Place. 

40 Martin Barnham, arm. 

S. a cross engrailed between four crescents Arg. 

41 Hog, Twisden, arm. . . East Peckham. 

Gyronny of four Arg. and G. a saltire between as many 
croslets, all counterchanged. 

42 Job. Smith., arm. . . . Ostenhanger. 

43 Tho. Scot, arm. . . . ut prius. 

44 Petr. Manwood, arm. . St. Stephen s. 

45 Ja. Cromer, mil. . ; . ut prius. 

JAC. REX. 

1 Jacob. Cromer, mil, . . ut prius. 

2 Tho. Baker, mil. . . . ut prius. 

3 Moilus Finch, mil. . . ut prius. 

4 Nort. Knatchbul, mil. . Mersham. 

Az. three croslets fitchee between two bendlets O. 

5 Rob. Edolph, mil. . . Hinxrhill. 

6 Edw. Hales, mil. . . . ut prius. 

7 Will. Withens, mil. . . South-end. 

8 Nich. Gilborn, mil. . . Charing. 

9 Max. Dallison, mil. . . Hailing. 

G. three crescents O. a canton Erm. 

10 Will. Steed, mil. . . Steed-hill. 

11 Anth. Awcher, mil. . . Hautsbourn. 

12 Edw. Filmer, mil. .., ., East Sutton. 

S. three bars, and as many cinquefoils in chief O. 

13 Edwin Sandis, mil. . . Northborn. 

O. a fess dancette between three croslets G. 

14 Will. Beswick, arm. . . Spelmonden. 

G. six besants ; a chief O. 

15 Gabr. Livesey, arm. . . Hollingborne. 

Arg. a lion rampant G. between three trefoils V. 

16 Tho. Norton, mil. . . Bobbing. 

17 Edw. Scot, arm. . . . ut prius. 

18 John Sidley, bar. . . ut prius. 

19 Tho. Roberts, mil. et bar. Glastenbury. 

20 George Fane, mil. . . ut prius. 

21 Joh. Hayward, mil. . . Hollingborne, 

22 Tho. Hamond, mil. . . Brasted. 

Arg. on a chevron engrailed betwixt three martlets S. 
as many cinquefoils O. 

CAR. I. 

1 Isa. Sidley, mil. et bar. . Great Chart. 

Arms, ut prius. 

2 Basilius Dixwel, arm. . Folkstone. 

Arg. a chevron G. between three flowers-de-luce S. 



176 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

Anno . Name. Place. 

3 Edw. Engham, mil. . . Goodnestone. 

Arg. a chevron S. between three ogresses ; a chief G. 

4 Will. Campion, mil. . Combwel, 

5 Rich. Brown, arm. . . Singleton. 

Arms, ut prius. 

6 Rob. Lewkner, mil. . . Acris, 

Az. three chevrons Arg. 

7 Nich. Miller, arm. . . Crouch. 

8 Tho. Style, bar. . . . Watringbury. 

Arms, ut prius. 

9 Joh. Baker, bar. . . . ut prius. 

10 Edw. Chute, arm. . . Surrenden. 

11 Will. Culpeper, bar. . ut prius. 

12 Geo. Sands, mil. . . . ut prius. 

13 Tho. Hendley, mil. . . Courshorn. 

14 Edw. Maisters, mil. . . East Langdon. 

15 David Polhill, arm. . . Otford. 

16 Jacob. Hugeson, arm. . Lingsted. 

17 Will. Brokman, mil. . Bithborow. 
Joh. Honywood, mil. . Evington. 

18 
19 

20 Joh. Rayney, bar. 

21 Edw. Monins, bar. . . Waldershare Court. 

Az. a lion passant betwixt three escalops O. 

22 Joh. Hendon, mil. 

RICHARD II. 

5. ARNOLD SAVAGE. He was a knight, and the third con 
stable of Queenborough Castle, He lieth buried in Bobbing 
church, with this inscription : 

" Orate specialiter pro animabus Arnold! Savage, qui obiit in vigil. Sane. An- 
drese Apost. anno 1410, et Domine Joanne uxoris ejus, quse fuit fiL &c." 

The rest is defaced. 

16. GULIELMUS BARRY. In the parish church of Sevington 
in this county, I meet with these two sepulchral inscriptions : 

" Orate pro anima Isabella quondam uxoris Willielmi Barry, Militis." 
" Hie jacet Joanna Barry, quondam uxor Willielmi Barry, Militis." 

There is in the same church a monument, whereupon a man 
armed is portrayed, the inscription thereon being altogether 
perished, which in all probability, by the report of the parish 
ioners, was made to the memory of Sir William Barry aforesaid. 

HENRY IV. 

6. VALENTINE BARRET. He lieth buried in the parish 



SHERIFFS. 

church of Lenham in this county, under a grave-stone, thus 
inscribed : 

" Hie jacet Valentine Barret, Arm. qui obiit Novemb 10, 1440, et Cecilia uxor 
ejus, quae obiit Martii 2, 1440, quorum animabus " 

v HENRY VI. 

7- WILLIAM SCOT. He lieth buried in Braburne church, 
with this epitaph : 

Hie jacet "Willielmus Scot de Braburne, Arm. qui obiit 5 Feb. 1433, cujus anim 

Sis testis, Christe, quod non jacet hie lapis iste, 
Corpus ut ornetur, sed spiritus ut memoretur. 
Quisquis eris qui transieris, sic perlege, plora, 
Sum quod eris, fueramque quod es, pro me precor ora. 1 

His family afterwards fixed at Scot s-hall in this county, 
where they nourish at this day in great reputation. 

9. JOHN SEINTLEGER. I find him entombed in Ulcombe 
church, where this is written on his grave, " Here lieth John 
Seintleger, Esq. and Margery his wife, sole daughter and heir 
of James Donnet, 1442." Wonder not that there is no men 
tion in this catalogue of Sir Thomas Seintleger, a native and 
potent person in this county, who married Anne the relic of 
Henry Holland duke of Exeter, the sister of king Edward the 
Fourth, by whom he had Anne, mother to Thomas Manners, 
first earl of Rutland ; for the said Sir Thomas Seintleger was 
not to be confided in under king Henry the Sixth ; and after 
wards, when brother-in-law to king Edward the Fourth, was 
above the office of the shrievalty. 

16, RICHARDUS WALLER. This is that renowned soldier, 
who, in the time of Henry the Fifth, took Charles duke of 
Orleans, general of the French army, prisoner at the battle of 
Agincourt, brought, him over into England, and held him in 
honourable restraint or custody at Gromebridge, which a manu 
script in the Herald s office notes to be twenty-four years.* In 
the time of which his recess, he newly erected the house at 
Gromebridge upon the old foundation, and was a benefactor to 
the repair of Spelhurst church, where his arms remain in stone 
work over the church-porch : but, lest such a signal piece of ser 
vice might be entombed in the sepulchre of unthankful forgetful- 
ness, the prince assigned to this Richard Waller and his heirs for 
ever an additional crest, viz. the arms or escutcheon of France, 
hanging by a label on an oak, with this motto affixed, " Heec 
Fructus Virtutis." From this Richard, Sir William Waller is 
lineally descended, 

23. WILLIELMUS CROWMER. This year happened the bar 
barous rebellion of Jack Cade in Kent. This sheriff, unable 

* Villare Cantianum, p. 320. 
VOL. II. N 



178 WORTHIES OF KENT. 

with the posse comitatus to resist their numerousness, was taken 
by them, and by those wild justicers committed to the Fleet in 
London ; because, as they said (and it must be so if they said 
it), he was guilty of extortion in his office. Not long after, 
these reformers sent for him out of the Fleet, made him to be 
brought to Mile-end, where, without any legal proceedings, they 
caused his head to be smitten off, and set upon a long pole on 
London-bridge, next to the lord Say aforesaid, whose daughter 
he had married.* 

38. JOHN SCOT, Arm. et vicissim Vic. I understand it thus ; 
that his under-sheriff supplied his place whilst he was busied in 
higher affairs. He was knighted, much trusted, and employed 
by king Edward the Fourth. I read in a record, 

"Johannes Scot, Miles, cum CC. Soldariis, ex mandate Domini Regis, apud 
Sandwicum, pro salva custodia ejusdem."f 

The aforesaid king, in the twelfth year of his reign, sent this 
Sir John (being one of his privy council, and knight marshal 
of Calais) with others, on an embassy, to the dukes of Burgundy 
and Britain, to bring back the earls of Pembroke and Richmond, 
whose escape much perplexed this king s suspicious thoughts. 
But see his honourable epitaph in the church of Braburne : 

" Hie jacet magnificus ac insignis Miles Johannes Scot, (quondam Regis domus, 
invictissimi Principis Edwardi Quarti, Controll. ), et nobilissima integerrima- 
que Agnes uxor ejus. Qui quidem Johannes obiit anno 1485, die mens. 
Octob. 17." 

RICHARD III. 

3. RICHARDUS BRAKENBURY, Mil. et WILLIELMUS CHE 
NEY. The former was of an ancient extraction in the north. I 
behold him as nearly allied (if not brother) to Sir Robert Bra- 
kenbury, constable of the Tower, who dipped his fingers so deep 
in the blood of king Edward the Fifth and his brother. It 
concerned king Richard, in those suspicious times, to appoint 
his confident sheriff of this important county ; but he was soon 
un-sheriffed by the king s death, and another of more true inte 
grity substituted in his room. 

HENRY THE SEVENTH. 

5. WILL. BOLEYN, Mil. He was son to Sir Jeffery Boleyne, 
lord mayor of London, by his wife, who was daughter and co 
heir to Thomas Lord Hoo and Hastings. This Sir William 
was made knight of the Bath at the coronation of king Richard 
the Third. He married one of the daughters and co-heirs of 
Thomas Butler earl of Ormond ; by whom, besides four daugh 
ters married into the worshipful and wealthy families of Shelton, 
Calthrop, Clere, and Sackvil, he had Sir Thomas Boleyn, earl of 
Wiltshire, of whom hereafter. 

* Stow s Chronicle, p. 391. 

f Inter. Bundell. Indent, de Guerra, apud Pelles Westm. 



SHERIFFS. 179 

10. JOH. PEACH, Arm. This year Perkm Warbeck landed 
at Sandwich in this county, with a power of all nations, con 
temptible, not in their number or courage, but nature and for 
tune, to be feared, as well of friends as enemies, as fitter to spoil 
a coast, than recover a country. Sheriff Peach, knighted this 
year for his good service, with the Kentish gentry, acquitted 
themselves so valiantly and vigilantly, that Perkin shrunk his horns 
back again into the shell of his ships. About 150 of his men 
being taken, and brought up by this sheriff to London, some 
were executed there, the rest on the sea coasts of Kent and the 
neighbouring counties ; for sea-marks to teach Perkin s people 
to avoid such dangerous shores.* 

HENRY THE EIGHTH. 

5. JOH. NORTON, Mil. He was one of the captains, who in 
the beginning of the reign of king Henry the Eighth went over 
with the 1500 archers, under the conduct of Sir Edward Poyn- 
ings, to assist Margaret, duchess of Savoy (daughter to Maxi 
milian the emperor, and governess of the Low Countries) against 
the incursions of the duke of Guelders ; where this Sir John 
was knighted by Charles, young prince of Castile, and after 
wards emperor. He lieth buried in Milton church, having this 
written on his monument ; 

" Pray for the souls of Sir John Norton, knight, and Dame Joane his wife, one 
of the daughters and heirs of John Norwood, Esq. who died Feb. 8, 1534. 

7. THOMAS CHEYNEY, Arm. He was afterwards knighted 
by king Henry the Eighth, and was a spriteful gentleman, living 
and dying in great honour and estimation ; a favorite and privy 
counsellor to four successive kings and queens, in the greatest 
turn of times England ever beheld ; as by this his epitaph in 
Minster Church, in the Isle of Sheppey, will appear. 

" Hie jacet Dominus Thomas Cheyney, inclitissimi ordinis Garterii Miles, Guar- 
duanus Quinque Portuum, ac Thesaurarius Hospitii Henrici Octavi ac Ed- 
wardi Sexti, regum, reginaeque Marias ac Elizabeths, ac eorum in secretis con- 
siliarius, qui obiit mensis Decembris, anno Dom. M.D.LIX. ac reg. reginse 
Eliz. primo." 

11. JOHN WILTSHIRE, Mil. He was controller of the town 
and marches of Calais, anno 21 of king Henry the Seventh. 
He founded a fair chapel in the parish of Stone, wherein he 
lieth entombed with this inscription : 

" Here lieth the bodies of Sir John Wiltshire, knight, and of Dame Margaret his 

wife; which Sir John died 28 Dec. 1526; and Margaret died of 



Bridget, his sole daughter and heir, was married to Sir Richard 

* Stow s Annals, p. 480. 
N 2 



180 WORTHIES OF CANTERBURY. 

Wingfield, knight of the Garter, of whom formerly in Cam 
bridgeshire . 

12. JOHN ROPER, Arm. All the memorial I find of him, is 
this inscription in the church of Eltham : 

" Pray for the soul of Dame Margery Roper, late wife of John Roper, esquire, 
daughter and one of the heirs of John Tattersall, esquire, who died Feb. 2, 
1518." 

Probably she got the addition of Dame (being wife but to an 
esquire) by some immediate court attendance on Katharine first 
wife to king Henry the Eighth. 

KING JAMES. 

3. MOIL.E FINCH, Mil. This worthy knight married Eliza 
beth, sole daughter and heir to Sir Thomas Heneage, vice-cham 
berlain to queen Elizabeth, and chancellor of the duchy of Lan 
caster. She, in her widowhood, by the special favour of king 
James, was honoured Viscountess Maidstone (unprecedented, 
save by one,* for this hundred years) ; and afterwards, by the 
great grace of king Charles the First, created countess of Win 
ch elsea, both honours being entailed on the issue-male of her 
body ; to which her grandchild, the Right Honourable Heneage 
(lately gone ambassador to Constantinople) doth succeed. 

THE FAREWELL. 

Having already insisted on the courage of the Kentish men, 
and shown how. in former ages the leading of the van-guard was 
entrusted unto their magnanimity, we shall conclude our de 
scription of this shire, praying that they may have an accession 
of loyalty unto their courage, not that the natives of Kent have 
acquitted themselves less loyal than those of other shires ; but, 
seeing the one will not suffer them to be idle, the other may 
guide them to expend their ability for God s glory, the defence 
of his majesty, and maintenance of true religion. 



CANTERBURY. 

CANTERBURY is a right ancient city; and, whilst the Saxon 
Heptarchy flourished, was the chief seat of the kings of Kent. 
Here Thomas Becket had his death ; Edward, surnamed the 
Black Prince, and king Henry the Fourth, their interment. The 
Metropolitan dignity, first conferred by Gregory the Great on 

* Mary Beaumont, or Villers, extraordinarily created countess of Bucking 
ham. F. 



BUILDINGS PROVERBS, 181 

London, was, for the honour of Augustine, afterwards bestowed 
on this city.* It is much commended by William of Malmes- 
bury for its pleasant situation, being surrounded with a fertile 
soil, well wooded, and commodiously watered by the river 
Stour, from whence it is said to have had its name Durwhern ; 
in British, a swift river. t It is happy in the vicinity of the sea, 
which affordeth plenty of good fish. 

THE BUILDINGS. 

CHRIST CHURCH, first dedicated, and (after 300 years inter 
mission to Saint Thomas Becket) restored to the honour of our 
Saviour, is a stately structure, being the performance of several 
successive archbishops. It is much adorned with glass windows. 
Here they will tell you of a foreign ambassador, who proffered a 
vast price to transport the east window of the choir beyond the 
seas. Yet artists, who commend the colours, condemn the 
figures therein, as wherein proportion is not exactly observed. 

According to the maxim, " pictures are the books," painted 
windows were in the time of popery the library of lay-men ; and 
after the Conquest grew in general use in England. It is much 
suspected annealing of glass (which answereth to dying in grain 
in drapery), especially of yellow, is lost in our age, as to the 
perfection thereof. Anciently colours were so incorporated in 
windows, that both of them lasted and faded together : whereas 
our modern painting (being rather on than in the glass) is fixed 
so faintly, that it often changeth, and sometimes falleth away. 
Now, though some, being only for the innocent white, are equal 
enemies to the painting of windows as faces, conceiving the 
one as great a pander to superstition as the other to wantonness ; 
yet others, of as much zeal and more knowledge, allow the his 
torical uses of them in churches. 

PROVERBS. 

" Canterbury Tales."] 

So Chaucer calleth his book, being a collection of several 
tales, pretended to be told by pilgrims in their passage to the 
shrine of Saint Thomas in Canterbury. But since that time, 
Canterbury Tales are parallel to Fabula Milesice, which are cha 
ractered, Nee ver<e, nee verisimiles ; merely made to mar pre 
cious time, and please fanciful people. Such are the many 
miracles of Thomas Becket. Some helpful (though but narrow, 
as only for private conveniency) ; as, when perceiving his old 
palace at Otford to want water, he struck his staff into the dry 
ground (still called Saint Thomas s well), whence water runneth 
plentifully to serve that house (lately rebuilt) unto this day. 
Others spiteful ; as when (because a smith dwelling in that 
town had clogged his horse) he ordered, that no smith after- 

* Camdcn s Britannia, de Cant. 

t By Mr. Somner, in his Description of Canterbury, p. 37. 



182 WORTHIES OF CANTERBURY. 

wards should thrive within that parish.* But he who shall go 
about seriously to confute these tales, is as very a fool, as he 
was somewhat else who first impudently invented and vented 
them. 



PRELATES. 



[S. N.] STEPHEN LANGTON. Here we are at a perfect 
loss for the place of his birth, his surname affording us so much 
direction ; in effect it is none at all. Inopes nos copia fecit, 
finding no fewer than twelve Langtons (though none very near to 
this place), which makes us fly to our marginal refuge herein. 
Stephen, born in England, was bred in Paris, where he became 
one of the greatest scholars of the Christian world in his age. 
He was afterwards consecrated cardinal of Saint Chrysogone ; 
and then, by Papal power, intruded archbishop of Canterbury, 
in defiance of all opposition which king John could make 
against him. 

Many are his learned works, writing comments on all the 
Old, and on some of the New, Testament. He was the first 
that divided the whole Bible into chapters,t as Robert Ste 
phens, a Frenchman, that curious critic and painful printer, 
some six score years since, first subdivided into verses. 

A worthy \vork, making Scripture more manageable in men s 
memories, and the passages therein the sooner to be turned to ; 
as any person is sooner found out in the most populous city, if 
methodized into streets and houses with signs, to which the 
figures affixed do fitly allude. 

Say not this was a presumption, incurring the curse de 
nounced to such who add to Scripture ; v it being no addition, 
but an illustration thereof. Besides, God set the first pattern to 
men s industry herein, seeing the distinction of some verses may 
be said to be Jure Divino, as those in the Lamentations and else 
where, which are alphabetically modelled. 

As causeless their complaint, who cavil at the inequality of 
chapters, the eighth of the first of Kings being, sixty-six, the last 
of Malachi but six verses, seeing the entireness of the sense is 
the standard of their length or shortness. It is confessed, some 
few chapters end, and others begin, abruptly : and yet, it is 
questionable whether the alteration thereof would prove advan 
tageous, seeing the reforming of a small fault, with a great 
change, doth often hurt more than amend : and such alterations 
would discompose millions of quotations, in excellent authors, 
conformed to the aforesaid received divisions. 

Here it must not be concealed, that notwithstanding this 
general tradition of Langton s chaptering the Bible, some 
learned men make that design of far ancienter date, and par- 

Lambarde, in his Perambulation of Kent, p. 37. 

t Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iii. numb. 87. ; and Matthew Parker 
in the Life of Langton. 



SOL.DIERS WRITERS. 183 

ticularly that able antiquary Sir Henry Spelman.* This I am 
confident of, that Stephen Langton did something much mate 
rial in order thereunto ; and the improver is usually called the 
inventor, by a complimental mistake. 

However, though I believe Langton well employed in di 
viding the Bible, he was ill busied in rending asunder the church 
and kingdom of England, reducing king John to sad extre 
mities. He died, and was buried at Canterbury, anno Domini 
1228. 

SOLDIERS. 

WILLIAM PRUDE, Esquire, (vulgarly called Proud) was bom 
in this city, where his stock have continued for some hundreds 
of years ; bred a soldier in the Low Countries, where he attained 
to be lieutenant colonel. He was slain July 12, 1632, at the 
siege of Maestrich. His body (which I assure you was no usual 
honour) was brought over into England, and buried in the 
cathedral of Canterbury, in Saint Michael s chapel, on the south 
side of the choir, with this inscription on his monument : 

" Stand, soldiers ; ere you march (by way of charge) 

Take an example here, that may enlarge 

Your minds to noble action : here in peace 

Rests one whose life was war, whose rich increase 

Of fame and honour from his valour grew 

Unbegg d, unbought, for what he won he drew 

By just desert : having in service been 

A soldier, till nearly sixty from sixteen 

Years of his active life, continually 

Fearless of death ; yet still prepar d to die 

In his religious thoughts ; for, midst all harms, 

He bare as much of piety as arms. 

Now, soldiers, on ; and fear not to intrude 
The gates of death by th example of this Prude. 

" He married Mary daughter of Sir Adam Sprackling, knight ; and had issue by 
her four sons and three daughters ; to whose memory his surviving son Searles 
Prude hath erected this monument." 

WRITERS. 

OSBERN of CANTERBURY, so called . because there he had 
nis first birth, or best being, as chanter of the cathedral church 
therein. An admirable musician, which quality endeared him 
(though an Englishman) to Lanfranc, the lordly Lombard, 
and archbishop of Canterbury. He was the English Jubal,t 
as to the curiosity thereof in our churches : an art which never 
any spake against who understood it; otherwise Apollo is in a 
sad case, if Midas s ears must be his judges. However, in 
divine service, all music ought to be tuned to edification (that all 
who hear may understand it) ; otherwise it may tend to delight 
not devotion ; and true zeal cannot be raised where knowledge 
is depressed. This Osbern wrote the life of Saint Dunstan in 

* In Glossario, verbo Hu^tatcuckus, f Genesis iv. 21. 



184 WORTHIES OF CANTERBURY. 

pure Latin, according to that age, flourishing under William 
the Conqueror, anno 1070. 

[S. N.] SIMON LANGTON was, by his brother Stephen Lang- 
ton the archbishop, preferred archdeacon of Canterbury ; who, 
" Carne et sanguine revelante " (saith the Record) * made the 
place much better, both to him and his successors, in revenue 
and jurisdiction. A troublesome man he was, and, on his bro 
ther s score, a great adversary to king John, even after that king 
had altered his copy, and became, of a fierce foe, a son-servant 
to the Pope, by resigning his crown unto him. But our Simon 
could not knock off when he should, having contracted such a 
habit of hatred to king John, that he could not depose it, though 
commanded under the pain of excommunication. This caused 
him to trudge to the court of Home, where he found little fa 
vour. For such who will be the Pope s white boys must watch 
fully observe his signals, and not only charge Avhen he charg- 
eth, but retreat when he retreateth. This Simon (besides others) 
wrote a book of " The Penitence of Magdalene," in relation (it 
seems) to himself, though she found more favour in the court 
of heaven than he at Rome. He died anno Domini 12 .. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

JOHN EASDAY was alderman and mayor of this city, anno 
1585. He found the walls thereof much ruined; and, being a 
man but of an indifferent estate, began the reparation thereof at 
Ridingate, and therein proceeded so far as his name is inscribed 
on the walljf whose exemplary endeavours have since met with 
some to commend, none to imitate them.J 

THOMAS NEVILE, born in this city of most honourable ex 
traction, as his name is enough to notify and avouch. He was 
bred in Cambridge, and master first of Magdalen then of Trinity 
College, and dean of Canterbury. He was the first clergyman 
(sent by Archbishop Whitgift,) who carried to king James tidings 
of the English crown ; and it is questionable whether he brought 
thither or thence more welcome news (especially to the clergy), 
acquainting them with the king s full intentions to maintain 
church discipline, as he found it established. || 

But the main matter commending his memory is his magni- 
ficency to Trinity College, whose court he reduced to a spacious 
and beautiful quadrangle. Indeed he plucked down as good 
building as any erected ; but such as was irregular, intercepting 

Somner, in his Catalogue of the Archdeacons of Canterbury. 

f Idem, in his Survey of Canterbury, p. 15. 

J Alderman Simmons, who died M.P. for Canterbury in 1806, by his munifi 
cent expences on the Dane- John, &c. proved that this remark is no longer applica 
bleEn. 

He had a brother Alexander, a poet and scholar. ED. 

[I Sir George Paul, in the Life of Archbishop Whitgift. 



WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 185 

the sight, disturbing the intended uniformity of the court, 
whereby the beauty at this day is much advanced ; for, as the 
intuitive knowledge is more perfect than that which insinuates 
itself into the soul gradually by discourse ; so more beautiful the 
prospect of that building, which is all visible at one view, than 
what discovers itself to the sight by parcels and degrees. Nor 
was this doctor like those poets, good only at translation, and 
bad at invention ; all for altering, nothing for adding of his own ; 
who contributed to this college, (I will not say a widow s mite, 
but) a bachelor s bounty ; a stately new court of his own expence, 
which cost him three thousand pounds and upwards.* Much 
enfeebled with the palsy, he died, an aged man, May 7> 1615. f 

THE FAREWELL. 

I am heartily sorry that the many laudable endeavours for 
the scouring and enlargement of the river Stour (advantageous 
for this city) have been so often defeated, and the contributions 
given by well-disposed benefactors (amongst whom Mr. Rose, 
once an alderman of Canterbury, gave three hundred pounds) 
have missed their ends ; praying that their future enterprises in 
this kind may be crowned with success. 

For the rest, I refer the reader to % the pains of my worthy 
friend Mr. William Somner, who hath written justum vohtmen 
of the antiquities of this city. I am sorry to see him subject- 
bound (betrayed thereto by his own modesty) ; seeing otherwise 
not the city but diocese of Canterbury had been more adequate 
to his abilities. I hope others, by his example, will under 
take their respective counties; it being now, with our age, 
the third and last time of asking the banns, whether or no we 
may be wedded to skill in this kind, seeing now, " use, or for 
ever hold your pens ; " all church monuments, leading to know 
ledge in that nature, being daily irrecoverably embezzled. 



WORTHIES OF KENT WHO HAVE FLOURISHED SINCE THE 

TIME OF FULLER. 

Jeffery Lord AM H ERST, general ; born at Riverhead in Seven - 
oaks 1717; died 1797. 

Nicolas AMHURST, author of "Terras Filius," and "The Crafts 
man ;" born at Marden 1706 ; died 1742. 

Sir Richard BAKER, author of " Chronicle ;" born at Sissing- 
hurst 1568 ; died 1645. 

William BOYS, surgeon, historian of Sandwich ; born at Deal 
1735; died 1703. 

* Dean Neville s beautiful little chapel was removed about fifty years ago. Eu. 
t See Todd s Lives of the Deans of Canterbury ED. 



186 WORTHIES OF CANTERBURY. 

Sir Egerton BRYDGES, miscellaneous writer and critic; born at 

Wootton Court 1762 ; died 1837. 
George BYNG, first Viscount Torrington, admiral; born 1663 ; 

died 1733. 
Elizabeth CARTER, translator of Epictetus ; born at Deal 171 7 ; 

died 1806. 

Thomas CURTEIS, divine and poet ; bom 1690. 
John DENNE, divine and antiquary ; born at Littlebourne 1693. 
Andrew Coltee DUCAREL, English topographer, and Anglo- 
Norman antiquary; born at Greenwich 1714; died 1785. 
Sir Robert FILMER, political writer; born 1688 ; died 1747- 
William GOSTLING, antiquary ; born at Canterbury 1696. 
Stephen HALES, Christian philosopher ; born at Beckesbourn 

1677; died 1761. 
John HARRIS, historian of Kent, encyclopaedist, &c. ; died 

1719. 
Edward HASTED, historian of Kent; born at Hawley 1732; 

died 1812. 
John HAWKESWORTH, author of " The Adventurer ;" born at 

Bromley, 1715. 

Benjamin HOADLY, bishop of Winchester, originator of the 

Bangorian controversy; born at Westerham 1676; diedl761. 

George HORNE, bishop pf Norwich, commentator on the 

Psalms ; born at Otham 1730; died 1792. 
William HUNTINGDON, "Sinner Saved," a religious enthusiast; 

born at Cranbrook 1744; died 1813. 
Edward JACOB, historian of Faversham ; died 1 788. 
Basil KENNET, author of " Roman Antiquities ;" born at Post- 
ling 1674; died 1714. 
Richard KILBURNE, author of "Topographic of Kent;" died 

1678. 
Nath. LARDNER, defender of Christianity ; born at Hawkhurst 

1684; died 1768. 
Cath. MACAULAY (Graham), party historian ; born at Ollantigh 

1730; died 1791. 
John MONRO, physician, eminent in cases of insanity ; born at 

Greenwich 1715 ; died 1791. 

Elizabeth MONTAGU, author of " Observations on Shakes 
peare ;" born at Horton 1720 ; died 1800. 

William NEWTON, historian of his native town ; born at Maid- 
stone ; died 1744. 
William PITT, eminent statesman; born at Hayes-place 1759; 

died 1806. 
Admiral Peter RAINIER, public benefactor; born at Sandwich ; 

died 1808. 
Sam. Foart SIMMONS, physician and author; born at Sandwich 

1750; died 1813. 
Christopher SMART, poet; born at Shipbourne 1722; died 

1771. 



WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 187 

Sir Thomas STAINES, gallant naval officer; born at Dent-de- 
Leon, Margate; died 1813. 

Algernon SYDNEY, patriot; born at Penshurst 1617; executed 
in 1683. 

Lord TENTERDEN, chief juctice of the King s Bench ; born at 
Canterbury 1762; died 1832. 

Lewis THEOBALD, dramatic writer, commentator on Shaks- 
peare; born at Sittingbourne : died 1741. 

Admiral Sir Thomas BQulden THOMPSON, captain of the Lean- 
der in engagement with Le Genereux; born at Barham 1766. 

John THORPE, physician, and antiquary ; born at Newhouse, in 
Penshurst 1682; died 1750. . 

John THORPE, editor of " Custumale Iloffensi ;" born at Pens 
hurst 1714; died 1792. 

James WOLFE, major-general, conqueror of Quebec ; born at 
Westerham 1726; died 1759. 

William WOOLLETT, engraver; born at Maidstone 1735. 

Philip YORKE, first earl of Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor ; born 
at Dover 1690. 



%* The county of Kent has perhaps been more extensively illustrated by the 
pen of the historian, and the pencil of the artist, than any other in the kingdom. 
So early as 1576, appeared the " Perambulation of Kent," by William Lambarde; and 
in 1659, Mr. Rich. Kilburne produced a work, entitled, "A Topographic or Survey 
of the County of Kent." In 1719 appeared the History of Kent, by the Rev. Dr. 
Harris; and in 1776, two n orks, The Villare Cantianum, by Tho. Philipott, and 
a Topographical Survey of Kent, by Cha. Seymour, made their appearance. In 
1778, Mr. E. Hasted published a regular history of the county, which has been held 
in much esteem; and Mr. Hanshall produced another in 1798. Numerous local 
histories have also been produced at different times ; amongst which may be enu 
merated the following, in chronological order: Monasticoii Favershamiense inagro 
Cantiano, by T. Southouse, 1671. Treatise on the Roman Ports and Forts in 
Kent, by W. Somner, 1693. Somner s Antiquities of Canterbury, by N. Battely, 
1703. History of Rochester Cathedral, by Dr. R. Rawlinson, 1717. History of 
Thanet, by J. Lewis, 1726 ; also by R. E. Hunter, 1815. History of the Abbey of 
Faversham, &c., by J. Lewis, 1727. Rev. W. Newton s History of Maidstone in 
1741. Denne s History of .Rochester, 1772. Duncombe s Antiquities of Rich- 
borough and Reculver, from the Latin of Archd. Batteley, 1774. More s History 
of Tunstall, 1780. Thorpe s Antiquities of Kent, 1783. Duncombe s Descrip 
tion of Christ Church, Canterbury, c. 1783. History of the Three Archiepiscopal 
Hospitals at Canterbury, by J. Duncombe, and N. Batteley, 1785. Boys s History 
of Sandwich, 1786-92. Account of Cranbrook, 1789. Cozens s Tour through 
the Isle of Thanet, 1793. Pocock s History of Gravesend, Milton, &c., 1797. 
Wilson s Description of Bromley, 1797. Excursions in the Counties of Kent, &c., 
1802; and by J. P. Malcolm, 1814. History of Maidstone, by W. Rowles, 1809. 
History of Tunbridpe W T ells, by T. B. Burr, 1766; also by P. Amsinck, 1810. 
History of Dover, by the Rev. J. Lyon, 1813. Journey round the Coast of Kent, by 
L. Fussell, 1818. Account of the Weald of Kent, by T. D. W. Dean, 1814. 
Graphical Illustration of Canterbury Cathedral, by W. W T oolnoth, 1816. Pictu 
resque Views of Ramsgate, by H. Moses, 1817. Sketch of Knowle, by J. Bridge- 
man, 1817. Horns Description of Dover, 1819. Clifford s Guide to Tunbridge 
Wells, 1823. Gostlings Walkthrough Canterbury, 1825. Sketch of Dover, 1828. 
Account of Eltham Palace, by J. Buckler, 1828. Berry s Kentish Genealogies, &c. 



LANCASHIRE. 



LANCASHIRE hath the Irish Sea on the west, Yorkshire on 
the east, Cheshire (parted with the river Mersey) on the south, 
Cumberland and Westmoreland on the north. It rangeth in 
length, from Mersey to Wenander-Mere, full fifty-five miles, 
though the broadest part thereof exceedeth not one and thirty. 
The air thereof is subtil and piercing, being free from fogs 
saving in the mosses ; the effects whereof are found in the fair 
complexions and firm constitutions of the natives therein, whose 
bodies are as able as their minds willing for any laborious em 
ployment. Their soil is tolerably fruitful of all things necessary 
for human sustenance : and, as that youth cannot be counted a 
dunce, though he be ignorant, if he be docible, because his lack 
of learning is to be scored on the want of a teacher ; so sterility 
cannot properly be imputed to some places in this county, 
where little grain doth grow, because capable thereof, as daily 
experience doth avouch, if it were husbanded accordingly. 

This shire, though sufficiently thick of people, is exceedingly 
thin of parishes, as by perusing this parallel will plainly appear : 
Rutland hath in it forty-eight parishes.* 
Lancashire hath in it thirty-six parishes.f 
See here how Rutland, being scarce a fifth part of Lancashire 
in greatness, hath a fourth part of parishes more therein. 

But, as it was a fine sight to behold Sir Thomas More, when 
lord chancellor of England, every morning in term time, humbly 
ask blessing in Westminster-hall of Sir John More, his father, 
then a puisne judge jj so may one see in this shire some 
chapels, exceeding their mother-churches in fairness of struc 
ture and numerousness of people ; yet owning their filial rela 
tion, and still continuing their dutiful dependance, on their pa 
rents. But for the numerosity of chapels, surely the church of 
Manchester exceedeth all the rest, which, though anciently 
called but Villa de Manchester, is for wealth and greatness co- 
rival with some cities in England, having no less than nme 
chapels, which, before these our civil wars, were reputed to have 
five hundred communicants a-piece. Insomuch that some cler 
gymen, who have consulted God s honour with their own credit 
and profit, could not better desire for themselves, than to have 

* Camden s Britannia, in Rutland. 

| Idem, in Lancashire. Speed (I think mistaken) says but 28. 

\ Stapleton, in his Life. 



OATS ALUM OXEN. 189 

a Lincolnshire church, as best built; a Lancashire parish, as 
largest bounded ; and a London audience, as consisting of most 
intelligent people. 

The people, generally devout, are (as I am informed), north 
ward and by the west, popishly affected ; which in the other 
parts (intended by antiperistasis) are zealous Protestants. 
Hence is it that many subtile papists and Jesuits have been born 
and bred in this county, which have met with their matches, to 
say no more, in the natives of the same county ; so that thereby 
it hath come to pass, that, "the house of Saul hath waxed 
weaker and weaker, and the house of David stronger and 



stronger." 



NATURAL COMMODITIES. 



OATS. 

If any ask why this grain, growing commonly all over Eng 
land, is here entered as an eminent commodity of Lancashire ? 
let him know, that here is the most and best of that kind ; yea 
wheat and barley may seem but the adopted, whilst oats are the 
natural issue of this county ; so inclined is its genius to the pro 
duction thereof. Say not oats are horse-grain, and fitter for a 
stable than a table ; for, besides that the meal thereof is the dis 
tinguishing form of gruel or broth from water, most hearty and 
wholesome bread is made thereof. Yea, anciently, north of 
H umber, no other was eaten by people of the primest quality; 
for we read, how William the Conqueror bestowed the manor of 
Castle Bitham in Lincolnshire upon Stephen earl of Albemarle 
and Holderness, chiefly for this consideration, that thence he 
miffht have wheaten bread to feed his infant son, oaten bread 

*_> -f 

being then the diet of Holderness and the counties lying beyond 
it.f 

ALUM. 

I am informed that alum is found at Houghton in this 
county, within the inheritance of Sir Richard Houghton, and 
that enough for the use of this and the neighbouring shires, 
though not for transportation. But, because far greater plenty 
is afforded in Yorkshire, the larger mention of this mineral is 
referred to that place. 

OXEN. 

The fairest in England are bred (or, if you will, made) in this 
county, with goodly heads, the tips of whose horns are some 
times distanced five feet asunder. Horns are a commodity not 
to be slighted, seeing I cannot call to mind any other substance 
so hard, that it will not break ; so solid, that it will hold liquor 

* 2 Sam, iii. 1. f Camden s Britannia, in Lancashire. 



190 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

within it ; and yet so clear, that light will pass through it. No 
mechanic trade, but hath some utensils made thereof : and even 
now I recruit my pen with ink from a vessel of the same. Yea, 
it is useful cap-a-pie, from combs to shoeing horns. What shall 
I speak of the many gardens made of horns, to garnish houses ? 
I mean, artificial flowers of all colours. And, besides what is 
spent in England, many thousand weight are shaven down into 
leaves for lanthorns, and sent over daily into France. In a 
word, the very shavings of horn are profitable, sold by the sack, 
and sent many miles from London for the manuring of ground. 
No wonder then that the Horners are an ancient corporation, 
though why they and the Bottle-makers* were formerly united 
into one Company passeth my skill to conjecture. The best 
horns in all England, and freest to work without flaws, are what 
are brought out of this county to London, the shop-general of 
English industry. 

THE MANUFACTURES. 

FUSTIANS. 

There anciently were creditable wearing in England for per 
sons of the primest quality, finding the knight in Chaucer thus 
habited : 

" Of fustian be weared a gippon 
All besmottered witb bis haubergeon."f 

But it seems they were all foreign commodities, as may ap 
pear by their modern names : 1. Jen Fustians, which I conceive 
so called from Jena, a city in Saxony : 2. Ausgburg Fustians, 
made in that famous city in Suabia; 3. Milan Fustians, 
brought over hither out of Lombardy. 

These retain their old names at this day, though these several 
sorts are made in this county, whose inhabitants, buying the 
cotton, wool, or yarn, coming from beyond the sea, make it here 
into fustians, to the good employment of the poor, and great 
improvement of the rich therein, serving mean people for their 
outsides, and their betters for the linings of their garments. 
Bolton is the staple-place for this commodity, being brought 
thither from all parts of the county. 

As for Manchester, the cottons thereof carry away the credit 
in our nation, and so they did a hundred and fifty years ago. 
For when learned Leland,:j: on the cost of king Henry the 
Eighth, with his guide, travelled Lancashire, he called Man 
chester the fairest and quickest town in this county ; and sure I 
am, it hath lost neither spruceness nor spirits since that time. 

Other commodities made in Manchester are so small in them 
selves, and various in their kinds, the"y will fill the shop of an 
haberdasher of small wares. Being, therefore, too many for me 

* Stow s Survey of London, p. 638. f Cbaucer, in bis Prologue. 

J In his Itinerary. 



BUILDINGS WONDERS PROVERBS. 191 

to reckon up or remember, it will be the safest way to wrap 
them altogether in some Manchester-ticking, and to fasten 
them with the pins (to prevent their falling out and scattering), 
or tie them with the tape, and also, because sure bind sure find, 
to bind them about with points and laces, all made in the same 
place. 

THE BUILDINGS. 

Manchester, a collegiate as well as a parochial church, is a 
great ornament to this county. The choir thereof, though but 
small, is exceeding beautiful, and, for wood-work, an excellent 
piece of artifice. 

THE WONDERS. 

About Wigan, and elsewhere in this county, men go a-fishing 
with spades and mattocks ;* more likely, one would think, to 
catch moles than fishes with such instruments. First, they 
pierce the turfy ground, and under it meet with a black and 
deadish water, and in it small fishes do swim. Surely these 
pisces fossiles, or subterranean fishes, must needs be unwhole 
some, the rather because an unctuous matter is found about 
them. Let them be thankful to God, in the first place, who need 
not such meat to feed upon. And next them, let those be 
thankful which have such meat to feed upon when they need it. 

PROVERBS. 

" Lancashire fair women."] 

I believe that the God of Nature having given fair complex 
ions to the women in this county, art may save her pains (not 
to say her sins) in endeavouring to better them. But let the 
females of this county know, that though in the Old Testament 
express notice be taken of the beauty of many w r omen, Sarah, f 
Rebekah,t Rachel, Abigail, || Thamar,^ Abishag,** Esther ;ff 
yet in the New Testament no mention is made at all of the fair 
ness of any woman ; not because they wanted, but because grace 
is chief gospel-beauty. Elizabeth s unblameableness;JJ the 
Virgin Mary s pondering God s word ; the Canaanitish wo 




man s faith ;|||| Mary Magdalen s charity ;^H[ Lydia s attention 
to Paul s preaching ;*f these soul-piercing perfections are far 
better than skin-deep fairness. 

" It is written upon a wall in Rome, 
Ribchester was as rich as any town in Christendom."* %~\ 

And why on a wall ? Indeed the Italians have a proverb, " A 
wall is the fool s paper," whereon they scribble their fancies. 
But, not to be over curious in examining hereof, we suppose 

* Camden s Britannia, in Lancashire. f Gen. xii. 11. J Gen. xxiv. 16. 

Gen. xxix. 17. II l Sam. xxv. 3. -f 2 Sam. xiii. 1. ** 1 Kings i. 4. 

ft Esther ii. 7. tt Luke i. 6. Luke ii. 19. Ill) Matth. xv. 28. 

flf John xii. 3. *f Actsxvi. 14. *J Camden s Britannia, in Lancashire. 



291 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

some monumental wall in Rome, as a register, whereon the 
names of principal places were inscribed, then subjected to 
the Roman empire : and probably this Ribchester anciently was 
some eminent colony, as by pieces of coins and columns there 
daily digged out doth appear. However, at this day, it is net 
so much as a market town ; but whether decayed by age, or 
destroyed by accident, is uncertain. 

Here, reader, give me leave. The historian must not devour 
the divine in me, so as to debar me from spiritual reflections. 
What saith St. Paul ? " We have here no continuing city ; and 
no wonder, seeing mortal men are the efficient, mouldering 
buildings the material, and mutable laws the formal cause 
thereof. And yet St. Paul was well stocked with cities as any 
man alive ; having three, which in some sort he might call his 
own ; Tarsus, where he was born ;* Jerusalem, where he was 
bred at the feet of Gamaliel ; and Rome, whereby he received 
the privilege of freedom.t All which he waived as nothing 
worth, because of no abiding and continuance. 

MARTYRS. 

JOHN ROGERS was born in this county, and bred in the 
university of Cambridge ;J a very able linguist and general 
scholar. He was first a zealous Papist, till, his eyes being 
opened, he detested all superstition, and went beyond the seas 
to Wittenburg, where (some years after Tindal) he translated the 
Bible, from Genesis till the Revelation, comparing it with the 
original. Coming to England, he presented it in a fair volume 
to king Henry the Eighth, prefixing a dedicatory epistle, and 
subscribing himself (those dangerous days required a disguise) 
under the name of Thomas Matthew. 

And now, reader, that is unriddled unto me which hath puz 
zled me for some years; for I find that king James, in the 
instructions which he gave to the translators of the Bible, en 
joined them to peruse the former translations of 1. Tindal; 
2. Matthews ; 3. Coverdale; 4. Whitchurch; 5. Geneva.|| Now 
at last I understand who this Matthews was (though unsatisfied 
still in Whitchurch) ; believing his book never publicly printed, 
but remaining a manuscript in the king s library. 

Yet this present could not procure Mr. Rogers his security, 
who, it seems, for fear of the Six Articles, was fain to fly again 
beyond seas; and, returning in the reign of king Edward 
the Sixth, became a preacher of London. He and Mr. Hooper 
were the two greatest sticklers against ceremonies, though 
otherwise allowing of Episcopal government. He was the first 

* Acts xxii. 3. f Acts xxii. 27. 

t J. Bale, de Scriptoribus Bvitannicis, Cent. viii. num. 83 ; and Fox, Acts and 
Monuments. 

Bale, ut prius. 

II See my Church History. 10th Book, 17th Century. 



MARTYRS. 193 

martyr who suffered in Smithfield in queen Mary s days, and 
led all the rest ; of whom we may truly say, that, " if they had 
not been flesh and blood, they could not have been burnt : and 
if they had been no more than flesh and blood, they would not 
have been burnt." 

The Non- conformists account it no small credit unto them, 
that one of their opinion (as who would not flinch from the 
faith) was chosen by Divine Providence the first to encounter 
the fire. Such may remember, that no army is all front ; and 
that as constant did come behind as \vent before. Had those 
of an opposite judgment been called first, they had come first 
to the stake ; and in due time the defenders of ceremonies were 
as substantial in their sufferings. This John Rogers was mar 
tyred Feb. 4, 1555. 

JOHN BRADFORD was born at Manchester in this county;* 
and bred first a lawyer in the inns of court, and for a time did 
solicit suits for Sir John Harrington : afterwards (saith my 
author,f) ex rixoso causidico mitissimus Christi apostolus : going 
to Cambridge a man n maturity and ability, the university by 
special grace bestowed on him the degree of Master of Arts": 
and so may he be said to commence, not only per saltum, but 
per volatum. The Jesuit doth causelessly urge this his short 
standing for an argument of his little understanding ; whereas 
he had always been a hard student from his youth ; and his 
writings and his disputings give a sufficient testimony of his 
learning. 

It is a demonstration to me that he was of a sweet temper, 
because persons,J who will hardly afford a good word to a Pro 
testant, saith, " that he seemed to be of a more soft and mild 
nature than many of his fellows." Indeed he was a most holy 
and mortified man, who secretly in his closet would so weep for 
his sins, one would have thought he would never have smiled 
again ; and then, appearing in public, he would be so harm 
lessly pleasant, one would think he had never wept before. 
But Mr. Fox s pains have given the pens of all posterity a writ 
of ease, to meddle no more with this martyr, who suffered anno 
Domini 1555. 

GEORGE MARSH was born at Dean in this county ; bred a 
good scholar in a grammar-school, and then lived in the honest 
condition of a farmer : after the death of his wife, he went to 
Cambridge,|| where he followed his studies very closely; and 
afterwards solemnly entering into orders, became a profitable 

Fox, Acts and Monuments. 

t J. Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. viii. num. 87. 
t In his Examination of J. Fox s " Martyrs." 
Fox, Acts and Monuments, p. 1561. || Idem, ibidem. 

VOL. II. O 



194 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

preacher and curate to Mr. Lawrence Sanders, the worthy mar 
tyr. Causelessly therefore doth persons* asperse him, that he 
of a farmer turned a preacher, as if he had done it immediately 
(with many of our age leaping from the plough to the pulpit), 
concealing his academical breeding ; such is the charity of his 
Jesuitical reservation. 

As little is his charity for condemning him for answering 
dubiously and fearfully at first to such who examined him about 
the Sacrament of the Altar, seeing the said Marsh condemned 
himself for doing it, as therein too much consulting carnal re 
spects to save his life, as appears in Master Fox, whence the 
Jesuit fetcheth all his information. But Marsh made amends 
for all these failings with his final constancy, being both burnt 
and scalded to death (having a barrel of pitch placed over his 
head, an accent of cruelty peculiar to him alone) when he was 
martyred at Westchester, April 24, 1555. 

CARDINALS. 

WILLIAM ALAN was born in this county (saith my author) f 
nobilibus parentibus, of gentle parentage. He was bred in Oriel 
College, in the university of Oxford, and became head of St. 
Mary s-hall therein. Then, going beyond the seas, he became 
king s professor at Douay, canon of Cambray and Rheims ; 
and at last, by Pope Sixtus Gluintus, made cardinal priest 
of St. Martin s in Rome, 1587 ; and deserved his red hat by 
his good service the year after against his native country. But 
hear what different characters two authors of several persuasions 
bestow upon him. " He was somewhat above an ordinary man 
in stature, comely of countenance, composed in his gait, affable 
in all meetings ; and for the gifts of his mind, pious, learned, 
prudent, grave, and, though of great authority, humble, modest, 
meek, patient, peaceable ; in a word, beautified and adorned with 
all kinds of virtues. ^ " He was the last of our English car 
dinals in time, and first in wickedness ; deserving not to be 
counted among Englishmen, who, as another Herostratus, to 
achieve himself a name amongst the grandees of earth, endea 
voured to fire the church of England, the noblest (without envy 
be it spoken) in the Christian world ; so that his memory de- 
serveth to be buried in oblivion." 

He collected the English exiles into a body, and united them 
in a college, first at Douay, then at Rheims ; so great an ad 
vancer, that we may behold him as founder of that seminary. 
He died at Rome, anno 1594 ; and preferred rather to be buried 
in the English school, than in the church of St. Martin s, which 
gave him the title of cardinal. 

* In his Examination of Fox s " Martyrs. 1 f Pits, p. 792. 

J Pits, de Anglice Scriptoribus, p. 792. 

Godwin, in his Catalogue of Cardinals, p. 479. 



WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 195 



PRELATES. 

HUGH OLDHAM, born in this county, at Oldham, a village 
some six miles from Manchester, bred in Queen s College in 
Cambridge, was no ill scholar, and a good man, most pious 
according to and above the devotion of the age he lived in. He 
was afterwards bishop of Exeter ; a foe to monkish superstition, 
and a friend to university learning. Brazen-nose College in 
Oxford, and Corpus Christi College therein, will for ever bear 
witness of his bounty, to advance religion and learning. Be 
sides, the town of Manchester have good cause to remember 
him who founded and endowed a school therein, with large 
revenue, appointing the warden of the college therein Caput 
Schola. 

This bishop having a tough contest with the abbot of Tavi- 
stock, was excommunicated for refusing to stand to the decision 
of the court of Rome. He had formerly built a chapel in the 
south side of his cathedral ; and, dying excommunicate (on the 
aforesaid account), was buried, not in the very church, but brink 
thereof, and body of the wall. He died anno Domini 1520. 

JAMES STANLEY, D.D. brother of Thomas earl of Derby, 
was born in this county ; and was by king Henry the Seventh 
(his kinsman by marriage) preferred bishop of Ely 1506 ; a man 
more memorable than commendable, who never resided at his 
own cathedral. I can partly excuse his living all the summer 
with the earl his brother in this county ; but must condemn his 
living all the winter at his manor at Somersham in Hunting 
donshire,* with one who was not his sister, and wanted nothing 
to make her his wife save marriage. However, if Jehu allowed 
a burial to his most professed enemy, on this account, that she 
was a king s daughter, f none, I hope, will grudge his memory a 
room in this book, were it only because he was an earl s bro 
ther. He died anno 1515. 

HENRY STANDISH was, as I have just cause to conclude, 
extracted from the Standishes of Standish in this county ; bred 
a Franciscan, and doctor of divinity in Cambridge, and after 
wards made bishop of St. Asaph. I neither believe him so 
good as Pits doth character him, pietate et doctrina clarum ; 
nor so bad as Bale doth decry him, making him a doating fool. 
Sure I am, there was impar congressus betwixt him and Eras 
mus ; as unequal a contest as betwixt a child and man, not to 
say dwarf and giant. This Standish is said to have fallen down 
on his knees before king Henry the Eighth, petitioning him to 
continue the religion established by his ancestors ; and, entering 

* Godwin, in his Bishops of Ely, and Camden s Britannia, in the Description of 
Huntingdon. 

t 2 Kings ix. 34. 

o 2 



196 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

into matters of divinity, he cited the Colossians* for the Corin 
thians ; which being but a memory-mistake in an aged person, 
need not to have exposed him so much as it did to the laughter 
of the standers-by. After he had sat sixteen years bishop of 
St. Asaph, he died, very aged, 1535. 

JOHN CIIRISTOPHERSON was born in this county ;t bred 
first in Pembroke Hall, then fellow of St. John s, and after 
wards master of Trinity College, in Cambridge : an excellent 
scholar, and linguist especially. I have seen a Greek tragedy, 
made and written by his own hand (so curiously that it seemed 
printed), and presented to king Henry the Eighth. He no less 
elegantly (if faithfully) translated Philo and Eusebius into 
Latin. Besides his own benefaction to the Master s lodgings 
and library, he was highly instrumental in moving queen Mary 
to her magnificent bounty to Trinity College. In the visitation 
of Cambridge he was very active in burning the bones of Bucer, 
being then elect bishop of Chichester, scarcely continuing a year 
in that place. 

All expected that, at his first coming into his diocese, he 
should demean himself very favourably. For why should not 
the poet s observation of princes be true also of prelates ? 



Mitissima sors est 



Regnorum sub rege novo 

" Subjects commonly do find 
New-made sovereigns most kind." 

But he had not so much mercy as Nero, to begin cour 
teously, having no sooner put on his episcopal ring, but pre 
sently hs washed his hands in the blood of poor martyrs ; 
whereof in due place. J In the first of queen Elizabeth he was 
deprived, and kept in some restraint ; wherein he died, about 
the year 1560. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

JAMES PILKINTON, D.D. was the third son of James Pilkin- 
ton of Rivinglon in this county, esquire, aright ancient family ; 
being informed by my good friend Master William Ryley, Nor- 
roy, and this countryman, that the Pilkintons were gentlemen of 
repute in this shire before the Conquest, || when the chief of them, 
then sought for, was fain to disguise himself, a thresher in a 
barn. Hereupon, partly alluding to the head of the flail (falling 
sometime on the one, sometime on the other side), partly to 
himself embracing the safest condition for the present, he gave 
for the motto of his arms, " Now thus, now thus." 

Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. ix. num. 3. 
\ Bale, Pits, and Bishop Godwin, in the Bishops of Chichester. 
* See Martyrs in Sussex. 

Parker s Seel. Cant. MS. in the Masters of St. John s. 
II Others make this of far later date F. 



PRELATES. 197 

This James, bred fellow of St. John s in Cambridge, was in 
the first of queen Mary forced to fly into Germany, where he 
wrote a Comment on Ecclesiastes and both the Epistles of St. 
Peter.* After his return, in the first of queen Elizabeth, he 
was chosen Master of St. John s; and, March 2d, 1560, was 
consecrated bishop of Durham. 

Nine years after, the northern rebels came to Durham, and 
first tore the Bible, then the English Liturgy, in pieces.f Un 
happy (though most innocent) book, equally odious to opposite 
parties ; such who account the Papists heretics esteeming it 
Popish, whilst the Papists themselves account it heretical. The 
bishop had fared no better than the book, could he have been 
come by. But, when the rebellion was suppressed, the bishop 
commenced a suit against queen Elizabeth for the lands and 
goods of the rebels attainted in the bishopric, as forfeited to him 
by his charter ; and had prevailed, if the Parliament had not 
interposed, and, on special consideration, pro hoc tempore, ad 
judged them to the queen. He died anno Domini 1576. J 

EDWIN SANDYS was born at Conisby in this county ; whose 
good actings, great sufferings, pious life, and peaceable death, 
1588, are plentifully related in our "Church History." 

RICHARD BARNES was born at Bold near Warrington in 
this county ; bred in Brazen-nose College in Oxford, and 
afterwards advanced suffragan bishop of Nottingham ; thence 
he was preferred to Carlisle, 1570, and seven years after to Dur 
ham. He was himself one of a good nature (as by the sequel 
will appear), but abused by his credulity, and affection to his 
brother John Barnes, chancellor of his diocese. 

"A man, of whom it is hard to say, whether he was more 
lustful, or more covetous : who, whereas he should have been 
the man who ought to have reformed many enormities in the 
diocese, was indeed the author of them, permitting base and 
dishonest persons to escape scot-free for a piece of money, so 
that the bishop had a very ill report every where." || 

By the suggestion of this ill instrument, the patriarchal man 
Mr. Gilpin fell into this bishop s displeasure, and by him was 
suspended from his benefice. 

But the good bishop afterwards restored him ; and, visiting 
him at his house, took him aside into the parlour, and thus 
accosted him : 

" Father Gilpin, I acknowledge you are fitter to be bishop of 
Durham, than myself to be parson of this church of yours : I 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, pagina penult. 

f Camden s Elizabeth, in anno 1569. 

j Camden s Britannia, in Bishops of Durham. 

Out of a Manuscript of the great Antiquary, Mr. Dodsworth. 

| Bishop Carleton, in the Life of Mr. Gilpin. 



198 WORTHIES OP LANCASHIRE. 

ask forgiveness for errors passed ; forgive me, father ; I know 
you have hatched up some chickens that now seek to pick out 
your eyes ; but, so long as I shall live bishop of Durham, be se 
cure, no man shall injure you."* 

This bishop sate about eleven years in his see, and died a 
very aged man, a little before the Spanish invasion, anno Do 
mini 1588. 

JOHN WOOLTON was born at Wigan in this county, of honest 
parents, and worshipful by his mother s side.f He was bred a 
short time in Oxford ; and in the reign of queen Mary, attended 
his uncle Alexander Nowell in his flight beyond the seas. Re 
turning into England, he was made first canon residentiary ; 
and after, anno 1579? bishop of Exeter, being an earnest as- 
sertor of conformity against opposers thereof. He met, whilst 
living, with many hard speeches; but after his death (when 
men s memories are beheld generally in their true colours) he 
was restored to his deserved esteem, even by those who formerly 
had been his adversaries. He indited letters, full of wisdom and 
piety, becoming the strength of one in health, not two hours 
before his death, which happened March the 13th, 1593. It is 
a part, though not of his praise, of his happiness, that his 
daughter was married to Francis Godwin bishop of Hereford, 
whose learned pen hath deserved so well of the Church of Eng 
land. 

MATTHEW HUTTON. I have given a large account of him 
formerly, in my "Ecclesiastical History." However, having 
since received an exact Annary, as I may so say, from his near 
est relation, of his life, I will here insert an abridgment thereof. 

1. Being son to Matthew Hutton of Priest Hutton in this 
county, he was born anno Domini 1529. 2. He came to Cam 
bridge in the 17th year of his age, anno 1546, the 38th of king 
Henry the Eighth. 3. Commenced bachelor of Arts 1551 ; 
master of Arts 1555. 4. Chosen Margaret professor 
of divinity, December 15, anno 1561, in the 4th of queen 
Elizabeth. 5. In the same year commenced bachelor of divi 
nity. 6. Elected master of Pembroke-hall May the 12th; and 
the same year, September the fifth, admitted regius professor, 
anno 1562. 7- Answered a public act before queen Elizabeth 
and her court at Cambridge, anno 1564. 8. Married in the 
same year Katharine Fulmetby (niece to Thomas Goodrick, late 
bishop of Ely) who died soon after. 9. Made dean of York 
anno 1567. 10. Married for his second wife Beatrix Fincham, 
daughter to Sir Thomas Fincham of the Isle of Ely. 11. Re 
signed his mastership of Pembroke-hall, and his professor s 
place to Dr. Whitgift, April 12, anno 1567. 12. Married 

* Bishop Carleton, in the Life of Mr. Gilpin. 

f Godwin, in his Catalogue of the Bishops of Exeter. 



PRELATES. 199 

Frances, widow of Martin Bowes, son of Sir Martin Bowes, 
alderman of London, Nov. 20, 1583. 13. Chosen bishop of 
Durham, June 9, anno Domini 1589. 14. Confirmed by the 
dean and chapter July 26. 15. Consecrated by John arch 
bishop of York, July 27. 16. Translated to York, and conse 
crated at Lambeth, anno 1594, the thirty-seventh of queen Eli 
zabeth, by John archbishop of Canterbury and others, March 
24. 17. He died in Jan. 1605, in the 76th year of his age. 

He gave a hundred marks to Trinity College in Cambridge ; 
and founded an hospital at Wareton in this county. In a word, 
he was a learned prelate, lived a pious man, and left a precious 
memory. 

MARTEN HETON was born in this county, as by his epitaph 
on his monument, lately set up by his daughters in the church 
of Ely, may appear ; and bred first a student, then a canon of 
Christ Church, on whom queen Elizabeth bestowed the bishop 
ric of Ely, after twenty-nine years vacancy thereof. Now, al- 
. though his memory groweth under the suspicion of simoniacal 
compliance, yet this due the inhabitants of Ely do unto him, 
that they acknowledge him the best housekeeper in that see 
within man s remembrance. He died July 14, 1609, leaving 
two daughters, married in those knightly families of Fish and 
Filmer. 

RICHARD BANCROFT was born at in this 

county ;* bred in Jesus College in Cambridge ; and was after 
wards, by queen Elizabeth, made bishop of London ; by king 
James, archbishop of Canterbury. Indeed he was in effect 
archbishop whilst bishop, to whom Doctor Whitgift, in his de 
crepit age, remitted the managing of matters ; so that he was 
the soul of the high commission. 

A great statesman he was, and grand champion of church dis 
cipline, having well hardened the hands of his soul, which was 
no more than needed for him who was. to meddle with nettles 
and briars, and met with much opposition. No wonder if those 
who were silenced by him in the church were loud against him 
in other places. 

David speaketh of ee poison under men s lips."f This bishop 
tasted plentifully thereof from the mouths of his enemies, till at 
last (as Mithridates) he was so habited to poisons, they became 
food unto him. Once a gentleman, coming to visit him, pre 
sented him a libel, which he found pasted on his door, who, 
nothing moved thereat, t( Cast it," said he " to an hundred more 
which lie here on a heap in my chamber." 

Many a libel (lie, because false ; bell, because loud) was 
made upon him. The aspersion of covetousness, though cast, 

* So I find in the manuscript of Mr. Dodsworth ; and so Mr. Richard 1 .ine (this 
Archbishop s servant lately deceased) did inform me F. f Psal. cd. 3. 



200 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

doth not stick on his memory ; being confuted by the estate 
which he left, small in proportion to his great preferment. 

He cancelled his first will, wherein he had bequeathed much 
to the church ; which gave the occasion for scurrilous pens to 
pass on him : 

" He who never repented of doing ill, 
Repented that once he made a good will." 

Whereas indeed, suspecting an impression of popular violence 
on cathedrals, and fearing an alienation of what was bequeathed 
tinto them, he thought fit to cancel his awn, to prevent others 
cancelling his testament. 

This partly appears by his second will, wherein he gave the 
library at Lambeth, the result of his own and three predecessors 
collections, to the university of Cambridge, which now they 
possess, in case the archiepiscopal see should be extinct. 

How came such a jealousy into his mind ? What fear of a 
storm, when the sun shined, the sky clear, no appearance of 
clouds ? Surely his skill was more than ordinary in the com 
plexion of the commonwealth, who did foresee what afterward, 
for a time, came to pass. This clause, providentially inserted, 
secured this library in Cambridge during the vacancy of the 
archiepiscopal see ; and so prevented the embezzling, at the least 
the dismembering thereof, in our late civil distempers. He died 
anno Domini 1610; and lieth buried at the church in Lambeth. 

THOMAS JONES was born in this county ; bred master of arts 
in Cambridge, but commenced doctor of divinity in the univer 
sity in Dublin.* He was first chancellor, then dean of St. Pa 
trick s in that city; and thence was made bishop of Meath, 
anno 1584, and the next month appointed by queen Elizabeth 
one of her privy council in Ireland. Hence he was translated to 
be archbishop of Dublin, anno 1605 ; and at the same time was 
by king James made chancellor of Ireland, which office he dis 
charged thirteen years, dying April 10, 1619. 

As he was a good officer for the king, he was no bad one for 
himself, laying the foundation of so fair an estate, that Sir Roger 
Jones, his son, was by king Charles created Viscount Rane- 
lagh. Thus, whilst the sons of the clergymen in England 
never mounted above the degree of knighthood, twot of the 
clergymen in Ireland attained to the dignity of peerage. I say 
no more, but Good success have they with their honour," in 
their persons and posterity ! 

RICHARD PARR was born in this county ;J bred fellow of 
Brazen-nose College in Oxford. Whilst he continued in the 
university, he was very painful in reading the arts to young 

Sir James Ware, de Praesulibus Lagemae, p. 40. 

The other, Viscount Ely, son to Archbishop Loftus F. 

M. James Chaloner, in his Description of the Isle of Man, p. 7. 



SOLDIERS. 201 

scholars ; and afterwards, having cure of souls, no less indus 
trious in the ministry. 

He was afterwards preferred to be bishop of Man, by the earl 
of Derby, lord thereof : for the lords of that island have been so 
absolute patrons of that bishopric, that no lease made by the 
bishop is valid in law without their confirmation. This prelate 
excellently discharged his place, and died anno Domini 1643. 

SOLDIERS. 

Sir WILLIAM MOLINETJX, Knight, of Sefton in this county. 
He was, at the battle of Navarre in Spain, made knight banneret 
by Edward the Black Prince, anno 1367 ; under whose com 
mand he served in those wars, as also for a long time in the 
wars of France. From whence returning homewards, he died 
at Canterbury, anno 1372; on whom was written this epi 
taph : 

" Miles honorificus Molineux subjacet intus; 
Tertius Edwardus dilexit hunc ut amicus : 
Fortia qui gessit, Gallos Navarosque repressit, 
Sic cum recessit, morte feriente decessit, 
Anno Milleno trecento septuageno, 

Atque his junge duo : sic perit omnis homo."* 

His monument is not extant at this day ; and it is pity that 
so good a sword did not light on a better pen ; and that Pallas 
(so much honoured by him in her military relation) did not 
more assist in his epitaph in her poetical capacity. 

Sir WILLIAM MOLIXEUX, junior, Knight, descendant from 
the former, nourished under king Henry the Eighth, being a 
man of great command in this county, bringing the considerable 
strength thereof to the seasonable succour of the duke of Nor 
folk, with whom he performed signal service in Flodden Field. 

It is confessed, on all sides, that the Scots lost the day by not 
keeping their ranks; but not agreed on the cause thereof, f 
Buchanan (who commonly makes the too much courage of his 
countrymen the cause of their being conquered) imputes to 
their indiscreet pursuing of the English, routed at the first. 
Others say, they did not break their ranks ; but they were 
broken, unable to endure the Lancashire archers, and so forced to 
sunder themselves. In this battle the Scotch king and chiefest 
gentry were slain ; the English losing scarce any of, the Scots 
scarce any but of, prime note. The king afterwards wrote his 
gratulatory letter to Sir William Molineux, in form following : 

" Trusty and well-beloved, We greet you well ; and understand, 
as well by the report of our right trusty cousin and counsellor 
the duke of Norfolk, as otherwise, what acceptable service you 
amongst others lately did unto us, by your valiant towardness 
in the assisting of our said cousin, against our great enemy the 

* Weever s Funeral Monuments, p. 234. f Paulus Jovius. 



202 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

late king of Scots ; and how courageously you, as a very hearty 
loving servant, acquitted yourself for the overthrow of the said 
late king, and distressing of his malice and power, to our great 
honour, and the advancing of your no little fame and praise : 
for which we have good cause to favour and thank you, and so 
we full heartily do ; and assured may you be, that we shall in 
such effectual wise remember your said service in any your 
reasonable pursuits, as you shall have cause to think the same 
right well employed to your comfort and weal hereafter. Given 
under our signet, at our castle at Windsor, the 27th of No 
vember."* 

It appears by our author, that the like letters, mutatis mutan 
dis, were sent unto Sir Edward Stanley and some other men of 
principal note in Lancashire and Cheshire. I have nothing 
more to observe, save that these two worthy Sir Williams were 
ancestors unto the truly honourable the lord Molineux, viscount 
Maryborough in Ireland, lately deceased. 

WRITERS. 

HUGH of MANCHESTER was, saith my author,t when Ado- 
lescens [a youth] a Dominican ; but when Juvenis (a young 
man) he changed his copy, and turned a Franciscan. Say not 
he degraded himself, choosing a later order than he left ; for it 
seems that amongst them the last is counted the best, as of a 
more refined perfection. He was a great scholar, and highly 
esteemed in that age for his severity and discretion. 

An impostor happened at this time, pretending himself first 
blind, then cured at the tomb of king Henry the Third,J so 
to get coin to himself, and credit to the dead king. But our 
Hugh discovered the cheat ; and, writing a book " De Fanati- 
corum Diliriis," dedicated it to king Edward the First, who kindly 
accepted thereof, preferring that his father s memory should 
appear to posterity with his true face, than painted with such 
false miracles. This Hugh, with another Franciscan, was em 
ployed by the same king to Philip king of France, to demand 
such lands as he detained from him in Aquitaine. Such who 
object, that fitter men than friars might have been found for 
that service, consider not how in that age such mortified men 
were presumed the most proper persons, peaceably to compro 
mise differences between the greatest princes. This embassy 
was undertaken anno Domini 1294. 

RICHARD ULVERSTON was born in this county, at Ulver- 
stone, a well known market-town in Lonsdale hundred. A 
great antiquary || (ambitious of all learned men s acquaintance) 

* Stow s Chronicle, p. 495. 

f Pits, de Angliae Scriptoribus, in anno 1294. 

j Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iv. num. 62. 

Idem, ibidem, 1430. || Leland. 



WRITERS. 203 

complained, that he knew him not so well as he desired. He 
was bred in Oxford, and wrote a book, entituled, " The Articles 
of Faith, or the Creed of the Church." This lay latent a good 
while, till John Stanberry bishop of Hereford rescued it from 
the moths some thirty years after the author s death, and be 
stowed a double light upon it ; one in producing it into the 
public, the other illustrating it with a commentary he wrote 
thereon. Say not this was false heraldry, but true humility, to 
see a bishop commenting (which is not usual) on the book of a 
priest. Bale concludeth all thus : 



longum 
doclrina potest obscuro carcere claudi. 

. nor will worth 



Long be confin d, but make its own way forth." 

The time and place of his death are equally uncertain ; but, 
by probability, about 1434, under the reign of king Henry 
the Sixth. 

THOMAS PENKETH,* so was his true name (though wrested 
by some Latinists into Penchettus, and miswritten Penthy and 
Penker, by some English), taken from a village in this county. 
He was bred an Augustinian in Warrington, and a doctor of 
divinity in Oxford ; a deep Scotist, and of so great a memory, 
that foreignersf (amongst whom he lived) report of him, that, 
had all the books of Scotus been lost, he could easily have re 
stored every word of them. He was called to be professor at 
Padua, and, returning into England, became Provincial of his 
order. 

But his last act stained his former life, who promoted the 
bastardizing of the issue of king Edward the Fourth ; and, as 
Dr. Shaw ushered, his flattery held up the train of the usurper s 
praises, in a sermon at St. Paul s ; in preaching whereof, he 
who had formerly forfeited his honesty, lost his voice ;J a pro 
per punishment for a parasite. His disgrace had some influ 
ence on his order, which, then vertical and numerous, daily 
decayed in England to their dissolution. This Thomas died, 
and was buried in London, 1487. 

JOHN STANDISH. Short mention shall serve him, who 
might have been left out without loss. He was nephew to 
Henry Standish, bishop of St. Asaph, of no mean family in this 
county. One would suspect him not the same man called by 
Bale a scurrilous fool, and admired by Pits for piety and learn 
ing, jealous lest another man should be more wise to salvation 
than himself. He wrote a book against the translation of 
Scripture into English, and presented it to the parliament. His 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. viii. num. 47. 

t Ambrosius Coriolanus et Jacobus Bergomensis. \ Speed s Chronicle, p. 717 



204 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

death happened seasonably for his own safety, 1556, a little be 
fore the death of queen Mary. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

THOMAS LEAVER was born in this county,* where his family 
and name still remain, at two villages called Leaver at this day. 
He was bred a fellow and bachelor of divinity of St. John s 
College in Cambridge, whereof he was chosen master 1552. He 
was also preferred master of Sherburne House, or Hospital, in 
the bishopric; a place, it seems, of good profit and credit, 
as founded by Hugh Pudsey, bishop of Durham, and earl of 
Northumberland. 

In the beginning of queen Mary he was forced to fly beyond 
the seas, and became the principal pastor ; for they had three 
other, of the English exiles at Arrow in Switzerland ; which 
congregation I behold, as the least, so the freest, from factions 
of any in that age of our nation. He was, saith my author,t 
" Virtutum in omni mansuetudine seminator ;" and, besides some 
sermons and a " comment on the Lord s Prayer," he wrote a 
book, intituled, " The right Pathway to Christ." 

After the death of queen Elizabeth, coming over into Eng 
land, he took a journey to Durham, to visit his old hospital at 
Sherburne ; and, falling sick by the way, died at Ware, anno 
1558, in that very juncture of time when what church prefer 
ment he pleased courted his acceptance thereof.! I find two 
more of his name, Ralph Leaver and John Leaver (probably his 
kinsmen) exiles for their conscience in Germany in the reign of 
queen Mary. 

WILLIAM WHITACRE was born at Holme in this county, 
whose life hath been formerly twice written by me. He died 
anno 1596. 

ALEXANDER NOWELL was born 1510, of a knightly family 
at Read in this county ;|| and at thirteen years of age being ad 
mitted into Brazen-nose College in Oxford, studied thirteen 
years therein.^ Then he became schoolmaster of Westminster. 

It happened in the first of queen Mary he was fishing upon 
the Thames, an exercise wherein he much delighted, insomuch 
that his picture kept in Brasen-nose College is drawn with his 
lines, hooks, and other tackling, lying in a round on one hand, 
and his angles of several sorts on the other. But, whilst Nowel 
was catching of fishes, Bonner was catching of Nowel ; and, 
understanding who he was, designed him to the shambles, whi 
ther he had certainly been sent, had not Mr. Francis Bowyer, 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. ix. num. 86. f Idem, ut prius. 

J Parker, in his Scelet Cantab. MS. in the Masters of St. John. 

In my " Holy State," and " Church History." 

II See the Latin Life of his nephew Dr. Whitaker, near the beginning. 

TJ In his epitaph on his monument in St. Paul s. F. 



WRITERS. 205 

then merchant, afterwards sheriff of London, safely conveyed 
him beyond the seas. 

Without offence it may be remembered, that leaving a bottle 
of ale, when fishing, in the grass, he found it some days after, 
no bottle, but a gun, such the sound at the opening thereof : 
and this is believed (casualty is mother of more inventions than 
industry) the original of bottled ale in England. 

Returning the first of queen Elizabeth, he was made dean of 
St. Paul s ; and, for his meek spirit, deep learning, prudence, 
and piety, the then parliament and convocation both chose, en 
joined, and trusted him, to be the man to make a catechism for 
public use, such a one as should stand as a rule for faith and 
manners to their posterity. 

Catechising (by the way) is an ancient church ordinance, as 
appears by Theophilus* and Apollos,f both exercised therein. 
It remained in state during the primitive church, and did not de 
cline till popery began to increase ; for, had catechising con 
tinued, it had made the laity more wise in religion than would 
well have stood with the interest of the church of Rome. It 
was therefore ousted by school divinity; and then a fruitful 
olive was cut down, to have a bramble set in the room thereof. 
In the first Reformation, Protestants revived this ordinance ; and 
by the use thereof, religion got the speed, and great ground of 
superstition ; till the Jesuits, sensible thereof, have since out- 
shot us in our own bow, most careful to catechise their novices ; 
whilst English Protestants .(for I will not condemn foreign 
churches) grew negligent therein. What is the reason that so 
much cloth so soon changeth colour ? even because it was never 
well woaded. And why do men so often change their opi 
nions ? even because they were never well catechised. 

He was confessor to queen Elizabeth, constantly preaching 
the first and last lent sermons before her. He gave two hun 
dred pounds per annum to maintain thirteen scholars in Brasen- 
nose College. He died, being ninety years of age, not decayed 
in sight, February 13, 1601. 

[S. N.] JOHN DEE, where born I cannot recover, was a man 
of much motion, and is mentioned in this place, where he had 
his (though last) best fixation. He was bred, as I believe, in Ox 
ford, and there doctorated, but in what faculty I cannot deter 
mine. 

He was a most excellent mathematician and astrologer, well 
skilled in magic, as the ancients did, the Lord Bacon doth,J 
and all may accept the sense thereof, viz. in the lawful know 
ledge of natural philosophy. 

This exposed him, anno 1583, amongst his ignorant neigh- 



f Luke i. 4. Tripi wv Karri^r,;. f Acts xviii. 25. 
+ In his (> Advancement of Learning." 



206 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

hours, where he then lived, at Mortlake in Surrey, to the sus 
picion of a conjurer ; the cause, I conceive, that his library was 
then seized on, wherein were four thousand books, and seven 
hundred of them manuscripts.* This indignity, joined with the 
former scandal, moved him to leave the land, and go over with 
Sir Edward Kelly into Bohemia, as hereafter shall be more fully 
related. f 

Returning to Mortlake, 1592, the same scandal of being a 
conjurer haunted him again. Two years after, viz. 1594, he 
was under a kind of restraint, which caused him to write to the 
Lady Scydemore, to move queen Elizabeth, either that he might 
declare his case to the council, or have liberty under the broad 
seal to depart the land. Next year he wrote an apologetical 
letter to archbishop Whitgift, which, it seems, found good re 
ception : yea, at last he gave such satisfaction of the lawfulness 
and usefulness of his studies, that the queen (besides many con 
siderable new year s gifts sent unto him) presented him warden of 
Manchester in this county, 1596, where he had many contests 
and suits with the fellows of that college. 

The last mention I find of him is in Mr. Camden, to whom 
he presented an ancient Roman inscription found about Man 
chester ; and Mr. Camden, in his requital, presented him with 
this commendation : J 

" Hanc mihi descripsit, qui vidit, Cl. Mathematicus, J. Dee, 
Collegii Manchestrensis custos." 

And indeed all the books he hath left behind him speak him 
a learned, as those " De usu Globi Terrestris," " De Nubium, 
Solis, Lunse, ac Planetarum distantiis," &c. an aged man ; being 
dedicated to king Edward the Sixth, and he dying about the be 
ginning of king James. 

ROGER FENTON, D.D. fellow of Pembroke Hall in Cam 
bridge, was born in this county, as appeareth by his epitaph in 
St. Stephen s, Walbrook, London, being the painful, pious, 
learned, and beloved minister thereof. Little is left of him in 
print, save a solid treatise against usury. Great was his inti 
macy with Dr. Nicholas Felton, being contemporaries, colle- 
giates, and city ministers together, with some similitude in their 
surnames, but more sympathy in their natures. 

Once my own father gave Dr. Fenton a visit, who excused 
himself from entertaining him any longer. " Mr. Fuller," said 
he, " hear how the passing-bell tolls at this very instant, for my 
dear friend Dr. Felton, now a- dying ; I must to my study, it 
being mutually agreed upon betwixt us in our healths, that the 
surviver of us should preach the others funeral sermon." But 

Theatrum Chymicum, p. 480. 
t See Sir Edward Kelly s Life, in Worcestershire. 
| In his Britannia, in Lancashire. 



WRITERS. 207 

see a strange change. God, " to whom belongs the issues from 
death,"* was pleased (with the patriarch Jacob blessing his 
grand-children) " wittingly to guide his hands across, reaching out 
death to the living and life to the dying."f So that Dr. Felton 
recovered, and not only performed that last office to his friend 
Dr. Fenton, but also survived him more than ten years, and 
died bishop of Ely. Roger Fenton died in the fiftieth year of 
his age, anno Domini 1615, buried in his own church, under a 
monument at the expence of the parish. 

ROBERT BOLTON was born at Blackburne in this county, on 
Whitsunday 1572 ; a year as infamous for the massacre of 
many Protestants in France, so for the birth of some eminent 
in England. His parents, having a narrow estate, struggled 
with their necessities, to give him liberal education ; and he was 
bred first in Lincoln, then in Brazen-nose College in Oxford. 
He had Isocrates six marks, or properties of a good scholar : 
E,v(j>vrjg, Mj/if^twy, Zjyreiri/ooe, ^i\op.aOrjs> SiAoTrovoe, ^tXjjKoog.J His 
want of means proved an advancement unto him : for, not hav 
ing whence to buy books, he borrowed the best authors of his 
tutor, read over, abridged into note-books, and returned them. 
He was as able to express himself in Latin or Greek, as Eng 
lish ; and that stylo imperalorio. He was chosen one of the 
disputants before king James, at his first coming to the univer 
sity ; and performed it with great applause. 

Thus far I have followed my author mentioned in the margin ; 
but now must depart from him a little in one particular. Though 
Mr. Bolton s parents were not overflowing with wealth, they 
had a competent estate (as I am informed by credible intelli 
gence) wherein their family had comfortably continued long time 
in good repute. 

Sir Augustine Nicolls presented him to the rectory of Brough- 
ton in Northamptonshire ; sending him his presentation unex 
pectedly, from his chamber in Sergeant s Inn, where Dr. King, 
bishop of London, being accidentally present, thanked the judge 
for his good choice ; but told him withal, that he had deprived 
the university of a singular ornament. Besides his constant 
preaching, he hath left behind him many useful books, the wit 
nesses of his piety and learning; and died, in the 59th year of 
his age, December 17, 1631. 

JOHN WEEVER was born at in this county ; bred in 

Queen s College, in Cambridge, under Dr. John Person, his 
worthy tutor. He was very industrious in the study of anti 
quity ; and composed a useful book of " Funeral Monuments " 
in the diocese of Canterbury, Rochester, London, and Norwich. 

* Psal. Ixviii. 20. f Gen. xlviii. 14. 

J See the particulars justified in his Life at large, written by my worthy friend 
Edward Bagshaw, Esq F. 



208 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

He died in London in the fifty-sixth year of his age ; and was 
buried iu St. James s, Clerkenwell, where he appointed this 
epitaph for himself : 

" Lancashire gave me breath, 

And Cambridge education. 
Middlesex gave me death, 

And this church my humation. 
And Christ to me hath given 
A place with him in heaven." 

The certain date of his death I cannot attain ; but, by pro 
portion, I collect it to be about the year of our Lord 1634. 

RALPH CUDWORTH, D.D. the second son of Ralph Cud- 
worth, of Wernith-hall near Manchester, esquire, chief lord of 
Oldham, was bred fellow of Emanuel College, in Cambridge. 
A most excellent preacher, who continued and finished some 
imperfect works of Mr. Perkins, and, after his decease, supplied 
his place in St. Andrew s in Cambridge. He was at last pre 
sented by the college to the parish of Aller in Somersetshire 
anno 16 . .* 

LAWRENCE CHADERTON was born at Chadderton in this 
county, of ancient and wealthy parentage ; but much nuzzled up 
in Popish superstition. He was intended for a lawyer ; and in 
order thereunto, brought up some time in the Inns of Court, till 
he changed his profession, and admitted himself in Christ s 
College in Cambridge. His father, hearing that he had altered 
his place, studies, and religion, sent him a poke with a groat 
therein, for him to go a begging therewith ; disinheriting him 
of that fair estate which otherwise had descended upon him. 
But God, who taketh men up " when their fathers and mothers 
forsake them," provided him a comfortable subsistence, when 
chosen fellow of the college. He was for many years lecturer 
at St. Clements, in Cambridge, with great profit to his auditors ; 
afterwards made, by the founder, first master of Emanuel. He 
was chosen by the Non-conformists to be one of their four repre 
sentatives in Hampton Court conference, and was afterwards 
employed one of the translators of the Bible. He had a plain 
but effectual way of preaching. It happened that he, visiting 
his friends, preached in this his native country, where the word 
of God (as in the days of Samuel) was very precious ; and con 
cluded his sermon, which was of two hours continuance at least, 
with words to this effect, " that he would no longer trespass 
upon their patience." Whereupon all the auditory cried out 
(wonder not if hungry people craved more meat), " for God s 
sake, sir, go on, go on." Hereat Mr. Chaderton was surprised 
into a longer discourse, beyond his expectation, in satisfaction 

* His son, the celebrated Dr. Ralph Cudworth, was born at Aller in 1617. The 
father died in 1C24 ED. 



WRITERS. 



209 



of their importunity, and (though on a sudden) performed it to 
their contentment and his commendation. Thus constant 
preachers, like good housekeepers, can never be taken so un 
provided, but that (though they make not a plentiful feast) they 
can give wholesome food at a short warning. 

He commenced doctor in divinity, when Frederick Prince 
Palatine (who married the lady Elizabeth) came to Cambridge. 
What is said of Mount Caucasus, " that it was never seen with 
out snow on the top," was true of this reverend father, whom 
none of our father s generation knew in the university before he 
was grey-headed, yet he never used spectacles till the day of 
his death, being ninety-four years of age. 

He was not disheartened with that common saying, " he that 
resigneth his place before his death, burieth himself alive ; r " 
but put off his clothes long before he went to bed ; divested 
himself of the mastership of Emanuel College, that so he might 
see a worthy successor in his life-time. The blessing which 
befell Job, was in some sort appliable unto him : he saw his suc 
cessors to " the fourth generation/ * I mean Doctor Preston, 
and after his death Doctor Sancroft, and after his death Doctor 
Holesworth, who preached his funeral sermon anno 1640, about 
the ninety-fourth year of his age. 

GEORGE WALKER was born at Hawkshead in Furnifells, of 
religious parents. Being visited, when a child, with tha small 
pox, and the standers-by expecting his dissolution, he started 
up out of a trance with this ejaculation, "Lord, take me not 
away till I have shewed forth thy praises ! " which made his 
parents devote him to the ministry after his recovery. 

He was bred B-D. in St. John s College in Cambridge, where 
he attained to be well skilled in the Oriental tongues, an 
excellent logician and divine. Mr. Foster (formerly his tutor) 
resigned unto him his living of St. John the Evangelist, Lon 
don ; wherein Mr. Walker continued the painful preacher well 
nigh forty years, refusing higher preferment often proffered 
him. Dr. Felton (the same morning he was elected bishop of 
Ely) made him his chaplain; and Dr. Featly chose him his 
second in one of his disputations against Father Fisher ; yea, 
Mr. Walker alone had many encounters with the subtilest of 
the Jesuitical party. 

He was a man of a holy life, humble heart, and bountiful hand, 
who deserved well of Sion College library ; and, by his example 
and persuasion, advanced about a thousand pounds towards the 
maintenance of preaching ministers in this his native county. 
He ever \vrote all his sermons, though making no other use of 
his notes in the pulpit, than keeping them in his pocket, being 
wont to say, " that he thought he should be out if he had them 

* Job xlii. is. 

VOL. II. p 



210 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

not about him." His sermons, since printed, against the pro 
fanation of the sabbath, and other practices and opinions, pro 
cured him much trouble, and two years imprisonment, till he 
was released by the parliament. He died, in the seventieth 
year of his age, anno Domini 1651. 

ROMISH EXILE WRITERS. 

EDWARD RISHTON was born in this county,* and bred some 
short time in Oxford, till he fled over to Douay, where he was 
made master of arts. Hence he removed to Rome ; and, having 
studied divinity four years in the English college there, was or 
dained priest, 1580. Then was he sent over into England to 
gain proselytes ; in prosecution whereof he was taken and kept 
prisoner three years. Yet was the severity of the state so 
merciful unto him, as to spare his life, and only condemn him 
to banishment. 

He was carried over into France, whence he went to the uni 
versity of Pontmuss in Lorraine, to ply his studies. During his 
abode there, the place was infected with the plague. Here 
Rishton forgat the physicians rule, "Cit6, procul, longe, 
tarde," (fly away soon, live away far, stay away long, come 
again slowly :) for he remained so long in the town, till he car 
ried away the infection with him, and, going thence, died at St. 
Manhow, 1585. I presume no ingenious papist will be censo 
rious on our painful Munster, learned Junius, godly Greenham, 
all dying of the pestilence, seeing the most conscientious of 
their own persuasion subject to the same ; and indeed neither 
love nor hatred can be collected from such casualties. 

THOMAS WORTH INGTON was born in this county, f of a gen 
tle family ; was bred in the English College at Douay, where 
he proceeded bachelor in divinity, and a little before the eighty- 
eight was sent over into England as an harbinger for the Spanish 
invasion, to prepare his party thereunto. Here he was caught, 
and cast into the Tower of London ; yet found such favour, that 
he escaped with his life, being banished beyond the seas. 

At Triers he commenced doctor in divinity ; and, in process 
of time, was made president of the English College at Rheims. 
When, after long expectation, the Old Testament came out in 
English at Rheims (permitted with some cautions for our lay- 
catholics to read) this Worthington wrote his notes thereupon, 
which few Protestants have seen, and fewer have regarded. He 
was alive in 1611 ; but how long after is to me unknown. 

If not the same (which, for his vivaciousness,J is improbable) 
there was a Father Worthington, certainly his kinsman and 
countryman, very busy to promote the Catholic cause in Eng 
land, about the beginning of king Charles. He dining, some 

Pits, de Anglise Scriptoribus, p. 787. 



WRITERS BENEFACTORS. 211 

thirty years since, with a person of honour in this land (at whose 
table I have often eaten) was very obstreperous in arguing the 
case for transubstantiation and the ubiquitariness of Christ s 
body : " Suppose/ said he, " Christ were here." To whom the 
noble master of the house (who till then was silent) returned, 
" If you were away, I believe he would be here." Worthington 
perceiving his room more welcome than his company, embraced 
the next opportunity of departure. 

ANDERTON, whose Christian name I cannot recover, 

was born in this county, and brought up at Blackburne school 
therein ; and (as I have been informed*) he was bred in Christ s 
College in Cambridge, where for his eloquence he was com 
monly called Golden-mouth Anderton ; afterwards he went be 
yond the seas, and became a popish priest, and one of the 
learnedest amongst them. 

This is he, who, improving himself on the poverty of Mr. 
Robert Bolton, sometime his schoolfellow (but then not fixed in 
his religion, and fellow of Brazen-nose College), persuaded him 
to be reconciled to the church of Rome, and go over with him 
to the English seminary, promising him gold enough, a good 
argument to allure an unstable mind to popery ; and they both 
appointed a meeting. But it pleased the God of heaven, who 
holdeth both an hour-glass and reed in his hand to measure 
both time and place, so to order the matter, that, though Mr. 
Bolton came, Mr. Anderton came not accordingly; so that 
Rome lost, and England gained, an able instrument. But now 
I have lost J. Pits to guide me ; and therefore it is time to 
knock off, having no direction for the date of his death. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

WILLIAM SMITH was born at Farnworth in this county ;f 
bred fellow in Pembroke-hall in Cambridge; and at last, by 
king Henry the Eighth, preferred bishop of Lichfield and Co 
ventry. That politic prince, to ease and honour his native 
country of Wales, erected a Court of Presidency, conformable to 
the parliaments of France, in the Marshes thereof; and made 
this bishop first president, those parts lying partly in his dio 
cese. He discharged the place with singular integrity, and 
general contentment, retaining that office till the day of his 
death, when he was removed to be bishop of Lincoln. 

A good name is an ointment poured out," saith Solomon ; 
and this man, wheresoever he went, may be followed by the 
perfume of charity he left behind him. 

1 . At Lichfield, he founded an hospital, for a master, two 
priests, and ten poor people. 2. In the same place, he founded 
a school, procuring from king Henry the Seventh, that the 
hospital of Downhall in Cheshire, with the lands thereunto be- 

k In the Life of Mr. Bolton. f Bishop Godwin, in the Bishops of Lincoln 

p 2 



212 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

longing, should be bestowed upon it. Say not this was robbing 
the spittle, or at the best robbing Peter to pay Paul ; seeing we 
may presume so charitable a prelate would do nothing unjust., 
though at this distance of time we cannot clear the particulars 
of his proceedings. 

At Farnworth, where he was born, he founded a school, 
allowing ten pounds annually (in that age no mean salary) for 
the master thereof. 

The University of Oxford discreetly chose him (Oxford being 
in his diocese of Lincoln) their chancellor, and lost nothing 
thereby; for he proved a more loving nephew than son; so 
bountiful to his aunt Oxford, that therein he founded Brazen- 
nose College ; but died 1513, before his foundation was finished. 

. MOLINEUX, a famous preacher about Henry the 

Eighth s time, descended of the house of Sefton in the county of 
Lancaster, builded the church at Sefton anew, and houses for 
schools about the church-yard ; and made the great wall about 
Magdalen College in Oxford.* 

EDWARD HALS ALL, in the county of Lancaster, Esquire, 
sometime chamberlain of the Exchequer at Chester, founded a 
free-school in Halsall, and endowed it with competent ^revenue, 
for the maintenance of a schoolmaster there for ever." When 
this party lived, I cannot as yet recover. 

THOMAS WEST was younger brother to the Lord de la Ware, 
and parson of Manchester ; on whom the barony was devolved, 
his brother dying issueless. The Pope allowed him to marry 
for the continuance of so honourable a family, upon condition 
that he would build a college for such a number of priests (fel 
lows under a warden) as the bishops of Durham and Lichfield 
should think fit; which he did accordingly, in Manchester. 
The endowment of this collegiate and parochial church were the 
glebe and tithes of the parsonage of that parish ; and besides 
them, scarce any other considerable revenue. 

I say the glebe, esteemed about 800 acres of that county (half 
as much more as the statute) measure ; besides a considerable 
part of the town, commonly called the Dean s Gate, corruptly 
for St. Dionise Gate (to whom, with the Virgin Mary and St. 
George, Manchester church was dedicated), built upon the glebe- 
land belonging to the church. As for the tithes of the parish, 
they lie in two-and-thirty hamlets, wherewith the collegiates 
were to be maintained, which were, one warden and four fel 
lows, and the integrated and incorporate rector, unto whom the 
parsonage was appropriated. There were also two chaplains, 
singing-men, choristers, and organists. 

* Both these notes were taken out of a manuscript of Mr. Roger Dodsworth F. 



BENEFACTORS. 213 

This college hath passed many dissolutions and re-foundations ; 
but was lately dissolved, and the lands thereof sold by the late 
act for sale of dean and chapters lands : some, skilful in the 
Gospel, much bemoaning it; and some learned in the law, con 
ceiving, that, being but the glebe of that rectory., it came not 
within the compass of that act. But, blessed be God, it since 
hath reverted to its former condition. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

JOHN SMITH was born at in this county ; bred in 

Magdalen College, in Cambridge ; whereof he became fellow, 
and proctor of the university, when past sixty years of age ; 
when the prevaricators gave him this homonymous salute, "Ave, 
Pater." 

This man could not fiddle, could not tune himself to be plea 
sant and plausible to all companies : but he could, and did, 
make that little college great, wherein he had his education. 

The poets feign how Bacchus, by reason of his mother Se- 
mele s untimely death, was taken out of his mother s womb, and 
sewed into the thigh of Jupiter his father, where he was bred 
until the full time of his nativity : a fiction which finds a moral 
in this Magdalen College, whose mother may be said to decease 
before the infant was fit to be born ; and that Mr. Smith per 
formed the rest of the parent s part thereunto. 

Indeed Edmund Stafford duke of Buckingham, the first 
founder thereof, gave it little more than a name. The lord 
Audley bestowed on it a new name, with little buildings and less 
endowment. Magnificent Dr. Nevil for a time was master 
thereof; but (according to the fashion of the world, the rich 
shall still have more) his affections were all for Trinity College, 
to which he was afterwards removed. 

Only Mr. Smith, by his long life and thrifty living, by what 
he gave to, and what he saved for, the college, so improved the 
condition thereof, that, though he left it lateritium as he found 
it, yet what he found poor and empty, he left rich and full of 
scholars. 

Nor must we forget his painfulness, when, with Dr. Gouge 
he solicited the suit called Magdalen College Case : nor yet his 
patience, when he lay so long in the Fleet, for refusing to 
submit to an order of Chancery (fearing their cause would be 
prejudiced thereby) ; so that he may be called the confessor of 
the college.^ From inconsiderable income, he raised by his care 
fulness considerable profit to the fellows of that house ; and, by 
observing the statutes, brought the college into such reputation 
for learning, that yearly it afforded one or more eminent scho 
lars. In a word, he was a true servant to the college all his life, 
and at his death, to which he bequeathed all he had, six hun 
dred pounds at least, and died anno Domini 163 . 



214 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

GEORGE CLARKE, haberdasher, a plain honest man, just, 
temperate, and frugal; and, according to his understanding, 
(which, in the world s esteem, was not great), devout, a daily fre 
quenter of the prayers in the college church, and the hearer of 
sermons there. Not long before the breaking forth of our civil 
dissensions, dying without issue, he made the poor his heir ; 
and did give them one hundred pounds per annum in good 
lands, lying in a place called Crompsall, within a mile of Man 
chester. I have not yet attained the certain date of his death. 

HUMPHREY CHETHAM, third son of Henry Chetham of 
Crompsall, gentleman, is thought (on just ground) to descend 
from Sir Jeffrey Chetham of Chetham (a man of much remark 
in former days) ; and some old writings, in the hands of wor 
shipful persons not far remote from the place, do evidence as 
much : but the said Sir Jeffrey falling in troublesome times into 
the king s displeasure, his family (in effect) was long since 
ruinated. 

But it seems his posterity was unwilling to fly far from their 
old (though destroyed) nest ; and got themselves a handsome 
habitation at Crompsall hard by, where James, elder brother to 
this Humphrey Chetham, did reside. The younger brethren, 
George, Humphrey, and Ralph, betook to the trading of this 
county, dealing in Manchester commodities sent up to London ; 
and Humphrey signally improved himself in piety and outward 
prosperity. He was a diligent reader of the Scriptures and of 
the works of sound divines ; a respecter of such ministers which 
he accounted truly godly, upright, sober, discreet, and sincere. 
He was high-sheriff of this county, 1635, discharging the place 
with great honour ; insomuch that very good gentlemen of birth 
and estate did wear his cloth at the assize, to testify their un 
feigned affection to him ; and two of them, of the same profes 
sion with himself, have since been sheriffs of the county.* 

Grudge not, reader, to go through so long a porch ; for, I 
assure thee, it leads unto a fair palace ; to as great a master 
piece of bounty as our age hath afforded. This Mr. Chetham, 
by his will, bearing date the 16th of January, 1651, gave 700> 
to buy a fee-simple estate of 420 for ever, for the education 
of forty poor children in Manchester at school, from about six 
till fourteen years of age, when they are to be bound out ap 
prentices. They must be the children of poor but honest 
parents ; no bastards, nor diseased at the time wherein they are 
chosen ; not lame or blind ; in regard the town of Manchester 
hath ample means already (if so employed) for the maintenance 
of such impotents. Indeed, he intended it for a seminary of 
religion and ingenuity, where the aforesaid boys were to have 

* John Huntley and H. Wrigley, Esquires. F. 



MEMORABLE PERSONS. 215 

diet, lodging, apparel, and instruction. He gave 1000 
for books to a library, and 100 to prepare a place for 
them. He bequeathed 200 to buy books (such as he himself 
delighted in) for the churches of Manchester, Bolton, and other 
chapels thereabouts. He gave the remainder of his estate 
(debts and legacies first paid) to the increase of the books in the 
library. 

Now as the loaves in the Gospel multiplied in the breaking ; 
so Mr. Chethanr s estate did not shrink, but swell, in the calling 
of it in ; insomuch that the aforesaid surplusage is known to be 
the better part of two thousand pounds. Dying a bachelor, he 
appointed George Chetham, esquire, citizen and grocer of Lon 
don (wherefore he was chosen alderman 1656, and fined for the 
same), and Edward Chetham, gentleman, executors of his will 
and testament. God send us more such men, that we may 
dazzle the eyes of the Papists with the light of Protestant good 
works ! And know, reader, I am beholding, for my exact infor 
mation herein, to my worthy friend Mr. Johnson, late preacher 
of the Temple, and one of the feoffees appointed by Mr. Chet 
ham for the uses aforesaid. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

Sir EDMUND de TRAFFORD, et Sir THOMAS de ASHTON, 
Knights, were persons of high esteem, as anciently descended, 
and richly revenued in this county. How great their skill was 
in chemistry will appear by the following patent (faithfully 
transcribed with mine own hand out of the original in the 
Tower) granted unto them by king Henry the Sixth, in the 
four and twentieth year of his reign : 

"REX omnibus ad quos, &c. salutem. Sciatis, quod cum 
dilecti et fideles nostri, Edmundus de Trafford, miles, et Tho 
mas Ashton, miles, nobis per quandam supplicationem mons- 
traverint, quod quamvis ipsi super certis metallis, per artem 
sive scientiam philosophise, operari vellent, metalla imperfecta 
de 1 suo proprio genere transferre, et tune ea, per dictam artem 
sive scientiam, in aurum sive argentum perfectum transub- 
stantiare, ad omnimodas probationes et examinationes, sicut 
aliquod aurum sive argentum in aliqua minera crescens, expec- 
tandum et indurandum, ut dicunt ; nihilominus certse personse, 
illis malevolentes et malignantes, supponant ipsos per artem 
illicitam operari, et sic ipsos in probatione dictee artis sive 
scientiae impedire et perturbare possunt : Nos praemissa con- 
siderantes, ac conclusionem dictse operationis sive scientiee scire 
volentes, de gratia nostra speciali concessimus et licentiam 
dedimus iisdem Edmundo et Thomas, et ipsorum servientibus, 
quod ipsi artem sive scientiam preedictam operari et probare 
possint licite et impune, absque impetitione nostra vel orficia- 
riorum nostrorum quorumcunque ; aliquo statute, actu, ordina- 
tione, sive provisione in contrarium facto, ordinato, sive proviso, 



216 



WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 



non obstante. In cujus, &c. T. R. apud Westmonast. septimo 
die Aprilis.*" 

(" The king to all unto whom, &c. greeting. Know ye, that 
whereas our beloved and loyal Edmund de Trafford, knight, and 
Thomas Ashton, knight, have by a certain petition shown unto 
us, that although they were willing, by the art or science of 
philosophy, to work upon certain metals to translate imperfect 
metals from their own kind, and then to transubstantiate them 
by the said art or science, as they say, into perfect gold or 
silver, unto all manner of proofs and trials, to be expected and 
endured, as any gold or silver growing in any mine ; notwith 
standing, certain persons, ill- willing and maligning them, con 
ceive them to work by unlawful art, and so may hinder and 
disturb them in the trial of the said art and science : We, con 
sidering the premises, and willing to know the conclusion of the 
said working or science, of our special grace have granted and 
given leave to the same Edmund and Thomas, and to their ser 
vants, that they may work and try the aforesaid art and science, 
lawfully and freely, without any hindrance of ours, or of our 
officers whatsoever; any statute, act, ordinance, or provision, 
made, ordained, or provided to the contrary notwithstanding. 
In witness whereof, the king at Westminster, the 7th day of 
April.") 

Mr KIDSON. Reader, I presume not now to direct 

thee, who myself am at a loss, and grope for a guide. Leland, 
in his Itinerary, speaking of Warton, a village in this county, 
observeth, that Mr, Kidson was born there; a passage which 
never had fallen from his pen, had he not been one of signal 
remark. Who this Mr. Kidson was, where he lived, what he 
did, where he died, I shall be thankful so such as give me satis 
faction. 

RICHARD ROTH WELL was born at or near Bolton in the 
Moors, in this county, f Taking the ministry (after his educa 
tion in Cambridge) upon him, he disposed his temporal estate to 
his friend to live of the Gospel. I remit the reader to his Life, 
extant at large in print, wherein this most remarkable, viz. his 
dispossessing of John Fox near Nottingham of a devil, there 
passing betwixt them a large discourse, by way of question and 
answer. I know that such confabulations are common in the 
church of Rome ; to whose exorcists, Satan s language is as 
familiar as Erasmus s Dialogues are well known to men, or those 
of Corderius to schoolboys. But such accidents amongst Pro 
testants are very rare, and therefore the more to be observed. 
There are, I confess, more Thomases than myself, much given 
to mistrust (whose faith will be at a stand herein). However, 

* Pat. 24 of Hen. VI. memb. 14. 

f Mr. Clark, in his Lives of Modern Divines, p. 450. 



LORD MAYORS SHERIFFS. 217 

finding it attested by an honest and able person,* I dare not 
deny the truth thereof. All I will say is this, that is the best 
belief, which is neither over- forward, nor over-froward ; which, 
as it will not run itself out of breath with too much speed, will 
not be like a restive horse, which no force can make to go far 
ther. He died at Mansfield in Nottinghamshire, 1627, in the 
sixty-fourth year of his age. Nor could I write less of him, 
whom one termeth " Orbis Terrarum Anglicarum Oculum," 
(The eye of our English world ;)t and my book would seem 
dark and blind, if passing him over in silence. 

LORD MAYORS. 

1. Nicholas Mossey, son of Edward Mossey, of Hough, Cloth- 

worker, 1599. 

2. James Pemberton, son of James Pemberton, of Ecclestone, 

Goldsmith, 1611. 

Reader, Lancashire is one of the twelve pretermitted coun 
ties, the names of whose gentry were not returned into the 
Tower in the twelfth year of king Henry the Sixth. 

SHERIFFS. 
ELIZ. REG. 

Anno Name and Arms. Place. 

1 Johan. Talbot, arm. 

Arg. three lions rampant Purpure. 

2 Rob. Worseley, mil. 

3 Joh. Atherton, mil. . . Atherton. 

G. three falcons O. 

4 Joh. Southworth. 

5 Tho. Hesketh, mil. 

Arg. on a bend S. three garbs O. 

6 Tho. Houghton, arm. . Houghton, 

S. three bars Arg. 

7 Edw. Trafford, arm. . . Trafford. 

Arg. a griffin rampant G. 

8 Ric Mollineux, mil. . . Sheffton. 

Az. a cross moline O. 

9 Tho. Laughton, mil. 

Arg. three chevrons G. 

10 Edw. Holland, arm. 

Az. a lion rampant, semee de fleurs-de-lis Arg. 

11 Joh. Preston, arm. 

Arg. two bars on a canton G. a cinquefoil O. 

12 Tho Butler, arm. 

13 Edw. Trafford, arm. . . ut prius. 

" Mr. Stanley Gower, minister of Dorchester, who penned his Life full of many 
Observables. F. 
f Idem, ibidem. 



218 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

X 

A nno Name. Place. 

14 Fran. Holt, arm. 

Arg. on a bend engrailed S. three flowers-de-luce of the first. 

15 Rich. Holland, arm. . . ut prius. 

16 Will. Boothe, arm. 

Arg. three boars heads erased and erected S. 

17 Fran. Holt, arm. . . . ut prius. 

18 Rich. Bold, arm. 

Arg. a griffin rampant S. lozengee of the field and Sables. 

19 Rob. Dalton, arm. 

20 Johan. Fleetwood . . Rossehall. 

Party per pale nebule Az. and O. six martlets counter- 
changed. 

21 Rad. Ashton, arm. 

Arg. a mullet S. 

22 Edw. Trafford, mil. . . ut prius. 

23 Joh. Byron, mil. 

Arg. three bendlets G. 

24 Rich. Holland .... ut prius. 

25 Joh. Atherton, arm. . . ut prius. 

26 Edwar. Trafford . . . ut prius. 

27 Tho. Preston, arm. . . ut prius. 

28 Richard. Asheton . . ut prius. 

29 Johan. Fleetwood . . ut prius. 

30 Tho. Talbot, arm. . . ut prius. 

31 Rich. Mollineux . . . ut prius. 

32 Rich. Bold, arm. . . . ut prius. 

33 Jac. Asheton, arm, . . ut prius. 

34 Edw. Fitton, arm. 

Az. on a bend Arg. three garbs O. 

35 Richard. Asheton . . ut prius. 

36 Radulph. Asheton . . ut prius. 

37 Tho. Talbot, arm. . . ut prius. 

38 Richard. Holland . . ut prius. 

39 Rich. Molleneux . . . ut prius. 

40 Richard. Asheton . . ut prius. 

41 Rich. Houghton . . . ut prius. 

42 Robert. Hesketh . . . ut prius. 

43 Cut. Halsall, mil. 

Arg. three griffins heads erased Az. 

44 Edward. Trafford . . ut prius. 

JAC. REX. 

1 Nic. Moseley, mil. 

S. a chevron betwixt three pick-axes Arg. 

2 Thorn. Baker, mil. 

3 Edw. Fleetwood, arm. . ut prius. 

4 Rich. Ashton, mil. . . ut prius. 

5 Rob. Hesketh, arm. . . ut prius. 



SHERIFFS. 219 

Anno Name. Place. 

6 Edw. Trafford, mil. . . ut prlus, 

7 Roger. Nowell, arm. 

Arg. three cups covered S. 

8 Johan. Fleming, arm. 

9 Cut. Halsall, mil. . . ut prius. 
W Rob. Bindlose, arm. . Berwick. 

Quarterly per fess indented G. and on a bend O. 

11 Rich. Shirborn, arm. 

12 Edw. Stanley, arm. 

Arg. on a bend Az. three stags heads caboshed O. 

13 Rolan. Moseley, arm. . ut prius. 

14 Edw. Trafford, mil. . . ut prius. 

15 Ric. Shutleworth. 

S. three weavers shuttles Arg. 

16 Leonar. Ashawe, arm. 

17 Ed. Moore, arm. 

V. ten trefoils, four, three, two, and one, Arg. 
18 
to 
24 



tor 
!2) 



CAR. REX. 



to 
22 

Courteous reader, do not behold these vacuities as the effect 
of my laziness, Nor will I excuse myself by accusing others. 
The rather, because " in gratuitis nulla est injusticia ;" it was no 
wrong in any to deny, what was bounty in them to bestow on 
me. But know, all my industry and importunity could not pro 
cure the seasonable sight of the records of this county (not kept, 
as the rest, in the Exchequer, but in a proper place by them 
selves), thereby to supply the beginning and finishing of this 
our catalogue. 

THE BATTLES, 

At Preston in Anderness, August 17th, 1648, Duke Ham- 
bleton, resolving to play an after-game of loyalty, entered Eng 
land with an army more numerous than well disciplined. Most 
beheld him as one rather cunning than wise ; yet rather wise 
than valiant. However, he had officers who did ken the war- 
craft as well as any of our age. He would accept of no Eng 
lish assistance, so to engross all the work and w r ages to himself. 
Some suspect his officers trust was undermined (or over-mo 
neyed rather) ; whilst others are confident they were betrayed 
by none save their own security. Indeed, the common soldiers 
were persuaded that the conquest would be easy ; rather to be 
possessed than purchased. Their van and rear were many 



220 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

miles asunder, and they met the resistance of major-general 
Lambert before they expected it. He at Preston gave the 
Scotch army such a blow, as settled or stunned it, though it 
reeled on some miles more southward into Staffordshire, where, 
at Ulceter, the duke was taken prisoner, and utterly defeated.* 
As for the defeat of James earl of Derby in this county, at 
the end of August anno 1651, it amounted not to a battle j 
which properly is the engagement of two formed armies. 
Whereas the forces of the earl were scattered before fully ga 
thered to a firm consistency. Yet this had been a battle if, not 
prevented by the vigilancy of colonel Lilburn and others, whose 
seasonable service to the parliament was not so great in itself, 
as in the most considerable consequences thereof. 

THE FAREWELL. 

I am informed that Pillyn-moss is the fountain of fuel [turf] 
in this county, and is conceived inexhaustible by the vicinage. 
May it prove so ! But, if it should chance to fail, may God s 
grace (which the vulgar, in their profane proverb, equally 
yoke therewith) I say, may God s grace never be drained to 
those that stand in need thereof ! 

And because this county may be called the cock-pit of con 
science, wherein constant combats betwixt religion and super 
stition, (may the contest betwixt them prove like the morning 
twilight), wherein (after some equal conflict betwixt them) the 
light gaineth the final conquest of the darkness. 

One word more to this shire, and I have done. Let me be 
the remembrancer, that Hugh of Manchester! in this county 
wrote a book in the reign of king Edward the First, intituled, 
"De Fanaticorum Deliriis," (Of the Dotages of Fanatics.) 
At which time an impostor had almost made Eleanor the queen- 
mother mad, by reporting the posthume miracles done by her 
husband, king Henry the Third, till this our Hugh settled her 
judgment aright.^ I could wish some worthy divine (with such 
Lancashire doth abound) would resume this subject, and shew 
how ancient and modern fanatics, though differing much in their 
wild fancies and opinions, meet together in a mutual madness 
and distraction. 



WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE WHO HAVE FLOURISHED SINCE 

THE TIME OF FULLER. 

Robert AINSWORTH, grammarian, and author of Latin Diction 
ary, born at Woodvale or Eccles, 1660 ; died 1743. 

" By Colonel Waite- -f- Vide supra, p. 202, titulo WRITERS. 

J Bale, de Scriptoribus Bntannicis, Cent. iv. numb. 62 ; and Pits, de Anglite 
Scriptoribus, anno 1294. 



WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 221 

Sir Richard ARKWRIGHT, inventor of cotton machinery, born at 
Preston 1732; died 1792. 

Dr. William ASSHETON, divine, voluminous author, and philan 
thropist; born at Micldleton 1641 ; died 1 71 1. 

Dr. Thomas BARNES, learned dissenting divine, and author, 
born at Warrington 1747; died 1810. 

Barton BOOTH, eminent tragedian ; born 1681 ; died 1733. 

John Byrom, poet and stenographic writer, born at Kersal 1691 ; 
died 1763. 

John COLLIER, writer, musician, caricaturist, author of "A 
View of the Lancashire Dialect," by " Tim Bobbin," born at 
Urmston near Warrington 1708 ; died 1786. 

Thomas FALKNER, Jesuit, author of Description of Patagonia ;. 
born at Manchester ; died 1780. 

Matthew GREGSON, topographer and antiquary ; born at Liver 
pool 1749; died 1824. 

James HARGRAVE, inventor in 1767 of improved Spinning- 
jenny; born at Blackburn. 

Mrs. Felicia Dorothea HE MANS, poetess; born at Liverpool; 
died 1835. 

Edward HARWOOD, author of " Editions of the Classics/ 
born 1729. 

Francis HAYWARD, physician and scholar ; born at Warrington 
1738-9. 

Nathaniel HEYWOOD, nonconformist divine and author ; born 
at Little Leaver, 1633 ; died 1677. 

Samuel HEYWOOD, serjeant-at-law, learned author, born at 
^Liverpool 1753; died 1828. 

Edmund LAW, Bishop of Carlisle, editor of Stephens s Thesau 
rus, and Locke; born at Cartmel, 1703 ; died 1787 

John Leland, author of " View of Deistical Writers " born at 
Wigan 1691 ; died 1766. 

Jeremiah MARKLAND, critic and collector, born at Childwall 
1693; died 1776. 

Sir Jonas MOORE, mathematician, surveyor-general of the ord 
nance, and author; born at Whittle-le- Woods 1617 ; died 
1679. 

Sir Robert PEEL, improver of the cotton machinery, M.P. au 
thor, and father of the present baronet ; born at Peel s Cross, 
Lancaster 1750: died 1830. 

Thomas PERCIVAL, physician, philosopher, and moralist; born 
at Warrington 1740 ; died at Manchester in 1804. 

Christopher RAWLINSON, antiquary and Saxonist; born at 
Carkhall 1677; died 1733. . 

Legh RICHMOND, amiable divine, author of the " Dairyman s 
Daughter," &c. bora at Liverpool 1772 ; died 1827- 

George ROMNEY, painter, royal academician ; born at Beckside, 
near Dalton 1734; died 1802. 



222 WORTHIES OF LANCASHIRE. 

William ROSCOE, poet and politician, born at Liverpool 1752; 
died 1831. 

George STUBBS, R.A. painter of animals ; born at Liverpool 
1724; died 1806. 

Dr. John TAYLOR, Unitarian divine, teacher, and author of an 
Hebrew-English Concordance, born at Lancaster 1694 ; died 
1761. 

Charles TOWNLEY, antiquary and skilful collector ; born at 
Townley Hall 1737; died 1805. 

John TOWNLEY, military hero, translator of Hudibras into 
French; born at Towneley 1697 ; died 1782. 

Thomas WEST, catholic priest, historian of Furness and the 
Lakes; born at Ulverston; died 1779- 

John WHITAKER, divine, antiquary, and historian of Man 
chester, where he was born 1735 ; died 1808. 

Dr. John WORTHINGTON, divine and author, born at Manches 
ter 1618; died 1671. 



%* It is to be regretted that the important and populous county of Lancaster is 
without a regular historian. Many local histories of great merit, however, have 
made their appearance ; as the Histories of Manchester hy Dr. Aikin (1795), by J. 
Aston (1816), and by the Rev. J. Whitaker (l 8 1 8 ) ; the History of Liverpool, by Mr. 
Wallace (1795) ; the Histories of Whalley and Clitheroe, and of the Parish of 
Cartmel, by Dr. T. D. Whitaker (1818) ; Antiquities of Furness, by the Rev. T. 
West (1774) ; Description of Blackpool, by W. Hutton (1804) ; and Fragments re 
lative to the History of Lancashire, by Mr. Gregson (1817.) There have also ap 
peared two Gazetteers of Lancashire ; one by J. Aston (1822), and another by S. 
R. Clarke (1830) ; besides two anonymous works, entitled, The Stranger in Liverpool 
1807 ; and the History of Liverpool (1819.) 



LEICESTERSHIRE. 



THIS county is (though not exquisitely) circular in the form ; 
whilst Leicester, the shire town, is almost the exact centre thereof; 
and the river Scare, diameter-like, divides it into two equal 
halves ; having Lincoln and Rutlandshire on the east, Derby 
and Nottinghamshire on the north, Warwickshire on the west, 
and Northamptonshire on the south. It extendeth from north 
to south thirty and three miles (measured from the utmost an 
gle) : but exceedeth not twenty-seven in the breadth thereof. 

Here, to avoid all offence, we will collect the quality of this 
soil from a native thereof : * who may be presumed exact in this 
quadri-partition. 

South- West. Rich ground, plentiful in corn and pasture, but 
wanting wood ; forcing the inhabitants to make use of straw, 
cowshern, &c. 

North-West. For the most part hard and barren, yielding 
fruit not without labour and expence, but well-stored with wood 
and pit coal. 

North-East. Good soil, apt to bear corn and grass, and suffi 
ciently provided with fuel. 

South-East. Much like the last for fruitfulness, and, of the 
two, better furnished with fuel. 

However, these four quarters, being put together into the 
body of one shire, competently supply their mutual defects. 

NATURAL COMMODITIES. 
BEANS. 

Plenty of these in this county, especially about Barton in the 
Beans, in the hundred of Sparkenhoe, where they appear like a 
forest toward the time of harvest. Wherefore the scouts of 
Charles duke of Burgundy, who mistook a field full of high 
thistles near unto Paris, for the army of the king of France 
with their lances held upright,t might here commit the like mis 
take with more probability. Though beans be generally beheld 
but as horse and hog-grain, yet were they man s meat even in 

* Burton, in his Description of Leicestershire, p. 2. 
f Phil. Comineus, lib. i. cap. 11. 



224 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 



the plentiful country of Canaan,* called "pp (Pholt) in the He 
brew ; whence some deduce the word pulse, though none dare 
affirm that Daniel s pulse was made thereof. But more of this 
grain hereafter, f 

COAL. 

These are digged up plentifully at Cole-Orton, in the hundred 
of West Goscote. I say Cole-Orton, for there is another vil 
lage called Cold-Orton in this shire : an addition which no less 
truly than sadly would be prefixed to most towns in this county, 
if not warmed in winter with this under-ground fuel, that above 
ground is so much decayed. 

I confess, Qijaavpoe avQpaKwv (a treasure of coals}, passeth both 
in the Greek and Latin proverb for a frustrated expectation ; 
and his hopes fall very low, who, looking for gold, either in 
specie or in ore, lighteth only on a heap of coals, which anciently 
used to be buried in the earth, for boundaries or limits of lands. J 
However, such mines of coals as these, without any help of al 
chemy, are quickly turned into gold and silver, sold at good 
rates to the counties round about. 

MANUFACTURES 

In this county are not to be expected ; for where the husband 
man s acre-staff and the shepherd s hook are, as in this county, 
in state, there^they engross all to themselves, and command ma 
nufactures to observe their distance from them. 

THE BUILDINGS. 

This county affordeth no cathedrals ; and as for parish churches 
therein, they may take the eye, not ravish the admiration of the 
beholder. Bottesford is one of the primest, very fair and large, 
with a high spire steeple. At the suppression of abbeys, many 
ancient monuments of the Albanies and Rosses were removed 
hither out of the priory of Belvoir, by the command of Thomas 
earl of Rutland ;|| and pity it was that his commendable care 
was not imitated in other places. 

As for civil structures, there is a seeming parity betwixt many 
fair houses in this shire; only something monarchical (above the 
ordinary aristocracy of fabrics) appears in the height, strength, 
and workmanship of the Stone Tower built by William lord 

* 2 Sam. xvii. 28, and Ezek. iv. 9. 

! In the proverb of Beanbelly Leicestershire, seep. 225. 

F Austin, de Civitate, lib. xxi. c. 4. 

The manufacture of stockings was successfully established in this county soon 
after the death of Dr. Fuller ; and the navigable canals, which cross this county in 
every direction, have infused a spirit of commercial industry. ED. 

A beautiful series of the Monuments of eight successive Earls of Rutland may 
still be seen in Bottesford Church. ED. 



WONDERS PROVERBS, 225 

Hastings at Ashby de la Zouch. Also the fair, large, and beau 
tiful palace built at Broadgate * by Thomas Grey marquis of 
Dorset challengeth the pre-eminence above the rest.f 

THE WONDERS. 

There is a village in this county named Carleton, surnamed 
Curley, and all that are born therein have a harsh and rattling 
kind of speech, uttering their words with much difficulty and 
wharling in the throat, and cannot well pronounce the letter R. 
Surely this proceedeth not from any natural imperfection in the 
parents (whence probably the tribual lisping of the Ephraim- 
ites J did arise) ; because their children, born in other places, 
are not haunted with that infirmity. Rather it is to be imputed 
to some occult quality in the elements of that place. Thus a 
learned author informeth us, that some families at Lablonne in 
Guienne in France do naturally stut and stammer, which he taketh 
to proceed from the nature of the waters. 

As for the inability distinctly to pronounce R, it is a catching 
disease in other counties. I knew an Essex man,|| as great a 
scholar as any in our age, who could not for his life utter Caro- 
lus Rex Britannia without stammering. The best was, the king 
had from him injiis hearty prayers what he wanted in his plain 
pronunciation. 

My father hath told me, that in his time a Fellow of Trinity 
College, probably a native of Carleton in this county, sensible of 
his own imperfection herein, made a speech of competent length, 
with select words both to his mouth and for his matter, without 
any R therein, to shew that men may speak without being be 
holden to the dog s letter. 

PROVERBS. 

" Bean-belly Leicestershire."] 

So called from the great plenty of that grain growing tnerein. 
Yea, those in the neighbouring counties use to say merrily, 
" Shake a Leicestershire yeoman by the collar, and you shall 
hear the beans rattle in his belly ;" but those yeomen smile at 
what is said to rattle in their bellies, whilst they know good sil 
ver ringeth in their pockets. 

Indeed I read a Latin proverb, " A fabis abstineto," (forbear 
beans) ; whereof some make a civil interpretation, " Meddle not 
with matters of state ;" because anciently men cast in a bean 
when they gave their suffrages in public elections. Others ex- 

* This noble edifice, the residence of Lady Jane Grey, was burnt down at the 
close of the seventeenth century. ED. 

f Of the houses built since Fuller s time, Staunton Harold, the seat of the 
Earl Ferrers ; Castle Donington, Earl Moira s ; and Kirkby Malory, Lord Viscount 
Wentworths. claim pre-eminence. ED. 

J Judges xii. 6. Jo. Bodin, Method. Hist, cap. 5. 

|| Mr. Joseph Mede. 

VOL,. II. Q 



226 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 

pound it physically, because beans are windy, and discompose 
the tranquillity of men s minds by their flatuous evaporation ; 
the reason assigned for the general report that Pythagoras pro 
hibited the eating of them to his scholars. Yet an excellent 
author informs me, that Pythagoras had his repast on beans 
more than on any other kind of pulse.* 

However, nothing will put Leicestershire men out of conceit 
of their beloved beans : the rather because their plenty argueth 
the goodness of [their ground; for, whereas lean land will serve 
for puling peas and faint fetches, it must be a strong and fruitful 
soil indeed, where the masculine beans are produced. 

" If Bevoir have a caj), 

You churls of the vale look to that." f ] 

That is, when the clouds (as he expoundeth it) hang over the 
towers of the castle, it is a prognostic of much rain and moisture, 
to the much indamaging of that fruitful vale, lying in the three 
counties of Leicester, Lincoln, and Nottingham. But, alas ! 
though the cap may be there still, the head (or the crown 
therefore) I am sure is not there [I mean Belvoir Castle itself], 
being lately demolished in our civil wars, though I hear some 
part thereof is rebuilding, I wish the workmen good success, 
though I suspect the second edition (to use a scholar s metaphor) 
of this castle will not be so full and fair as the former. 

PRINCES. 

JANE GREY,:}: eldest daughter of Henry Grey, duke of Suf 
folk, by Frances Brandon, eldest daughter to Mary, second sister 
to king Henry the Eighth, was born at Broadgates, near unto 
Leicester. 

No lady, which led so many pious, lived so few pleasant days ; 
whose soul was never out of the non-age of afflictions, till death 
made her of full years to inherit happiness; so severe her 
education. 

Whilst a child, her father s was to her a house of correction ; 
nor did she write woman sooner than she did subscribe wife ; 
and, in obedience to her parents, was unfortunately matched to 
the Lord Guildford Dudley ; yet he was a goodly, and (for 
aught I find to the contrary) a godly gentleman, whose worst 
fault was, that he was son to an ambitious father. 

She was proclaimed, but never crowned queen ; living in the 
Tower, which place, though it hath a double capacity of a palace 
and a prison, yet appeared to her chiefly in the latter relation. 

For she was longer a captive than a queen therein, taking no 
contentment all the time, save what she found in God and a 
clear conscience. 

Her family, by snatching at a crown which was not, lost a 

* Aristoxenus apud Aulum Gellium, lib. iv. cap. 11. 

t Burton s Description of Leicestershire, page 2. 

$ Her Life is written at large in my " Holy State.* F. 



PRINCES MARTYRS. 227 

coronet which was their own, much degraded in degree, and 
more in estate. I would give in an inventory of the vast wealth 
they then possessed, but am loath to grieve her surviving rela 
tions with a list of the lands lost by her father s attainture. 
She suffered on Tower-hill, 1554-5, on the twelfth of February. 

KATHARINE GREY was second daughter to Henry duke of 
Suffolk. Tis pity to part the sisters, that their memories may 
mutually condole and comfort one another. She was born in 
the same place, and (when her father was in heighth) married to 
Henry Lord Herbert, son and heir to the earl of Pembroke ; 
but the politic old earl, perceiving the case altered, and what 
was the highway to honour, turned into the ready road to ruin, 
got pardon from queen Mary, and brake the marriage quite off. 

This Heraclita, Lady of Lamentation, thus repudiated, was 
seldom seen with dry eyes for some years together, sighing out 
her sorrowful condition ; so that though the roses in her cheeks 
looked very wan and pale, it was not for \vant of watering. 
Afterward Edward Seymour earl of Hertford married her pri 
vately without the queen s licence; and concealed, till her 
pregnancy discovered it. 

Indeed our English proverb, " It is good to be near a-kin to 
land," holdeth in private patrimonies, not titles to crowns, 
where such alliances have created to many much molestation. 
Queen Elizabeth beheld her with a jealous eye, unwilling she 
should match either foreign prince or English peer, but follow 
the pattern she set her of constant virginity. 

For their presumption, this earl was fined fifteen thousand 
pounds, imprisoned with his lady in the Tower, and severely 
forbidden her company. But love and money will find or force 
a passage. By bribing the keeper, he bought (what was his 
own) his wife s embraces ; and had by her a surviving son, 
Edward, ancestor to the right honourable the duke of Somerset. 
She died January 26th, a prisoner in the Tower, 1567, after 
nine years durance therein. 

MARY GREY, the youngest daughter, frighted with the infe 
licity of her two elder sisters, Jane and this Katharine, forgot 
her honour, to remember her safety ; and married one whom 
she could love, and none need fear, Martin Kayes, of Kent, Esq. 
who was a judge at court (but only of doubtful casts at dice, 
being serjeant-porter) ; and died without issue, the 20th of 
April 1578. 

MARTYRS. 

HUGH LATIMER was born at Thurcaston in this county.* 
What his father was, and how qualified for his state, take from 

* Fox, Acts and Monuments, p. 32. 
Q 2 



228 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 

his own mouth, in his first sermon before king Edward, being 
confident the reader will not repent his pains in perusing it. 

" My father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own ; 
only he had a farm of three or four pounds a -year at the utter 
most ; and hereupon he tilled so much as kept half a dozen 
men. He had walk for an hundred sheep ; and my mother 
milked thirty kine. He was able, and did find the king an 
harness, with himself and his horse, whilst he came unto the 
place that he should receive the king s w r ages. I can remem 
ber I buckled his harness when he went to Blackheath-field. 
He kept me to school ; or else I had not been able to have 
preached before the king s majesty now. He married my sis 
ters with five pounds, or twenty nobles, a-piece ; so that he 
brought them up in godliness and fear of God. He kept hos 
pitality for his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to the 
poor. And all this did he of the same farm where he that now 
hath it payeth sixteen pounds by the year and more, and is not 
able to do anything for his prince, for himself, nor for his 
children ; or give a cup of drink to the poor." 

He was bred in Christ s College in Cambridge ; and con 
verted, under God, by Mr. Bilney, from a violent Papist to a 
zealous Protestant. He was afterwards made bishop of Wor 
cester ; and four years after ousted, for refusing to subscribe the 
Six Articles. How he was martyred at Oxford, 1555, is noto 
riously known. 

Let me add this appendix to his memory. When the 
contest was in the House of Lords, in the reign of king Henry 
the Eighth, about the giving all abbey lands to the king, there 
was a division betwixt the bishops of the Old and New learn 
ing, for by those names they were distinguishing. Those of the 
Old learning, unwillingly willing, were contented that the king 
should make a resumption of all those abbeys which his ances 
tors had founded, leaving the rest to continue according to the 
intention of their founders. The bishops of the New learning 
were more pliable to the king s desires. Only Latimer was dis 
senting ; earnestly urging, that two abbeys at the least in every 
diocese, of considerable revenues, might be preservedfor the main 
tenance of learned men therein. Thus swimming a good while 
against the stream, he was at last carried away with the current. 

EMINENT PRELATES BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 

GILBERT SEGRAVE, born at Segrave in this county, was 
bred in Oxford, where he attained to great learning, as the 
books written by him do declare. The first preferment I find 
conferred on him was, the provost s place of St. Sepulchre s in 
York ; and the occasion how he obtained it is remarkable. 

The Pope had formerly bestowed it on his near kinsman, 
which argueth the good value thereof; seeing neither eagles nor 
eagles -birds do feed on flies. This kinsman of the Pope s, lying 
on his death-bed, was troubled in conscience (which speaketh 






PRELATES. 229 

loudest when men begin to be speechless., and all sores pain most 
when near night) that he had undertaken such a cure of souls 
upon him, who never was in England nor understood English ; 
and therefore requested the Pope his kinsman, that after his 
death the place might be bestowed on some learned English 
man,, that so his own absence and negligence might in some sort 
be repaired by the residence and diligence of his successor :* 
and this Segrave, to his great credit, was found the fittest per 
son for that performance. He was afterwards preferred bishop 
of London, sitting in that see not full four years, dying anno 
Domini 1317. 

WALTER de LANGTON was born at West Langton in this 
county. He was highly in favour with king Edward the First, 
under whom he was bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, and trea 
surer of England. He granted him also liberty of free-warren in 
West and Thorpe Langton in this county, the patrimonial in 
heritance of this prelate. f 

With his own innocence and friends assistance, at long sailing 
he weathered out the tempest of the Pope s displeasure. 

Longer did he groan under the undeserved anger of king Ed 
ward the Second : chiefly because this bishop sharply reproved 
him, when as yet but prince, for his debauchery.^ 

See here the great difference betwixt youth : some hopefully, 
some desperately riotous. Of the former was Henry the Fifth, 
who, when king, is said to have rewarded and advanced such who 
had reproved and punished him when prince. Of the latter 
was king Edward, not only wild, but mad in his viciousness. 
But our Langton at length was brought, saith my author, "in 
regis semi-gratiam," (into the king s half favour) ; let me add, 
" et in populi sesque-gratiam," (and into the people s favour and 
half) who highly loved and honoured him. 

His tragi-comical life had a peaceable end in plenty and pros 
perity. He found his cathedral of Lichfield mean, and left it 
magnificent ; and it will appear by the instance of our Langton, 
Josceline of Wells, and others, that bishops continuing unre- 
moved in their see have achieved greater matters than those 
who have been often translated, though to richer bishoprics. 
Indeed prodigious was his bounty in building and endowing 
his cathedral, wherein he continued almost twenty-five years ; 
and, dying 1321, w r as buried in the chapel of St. Mary, of hi 
own erection. 

ROGER de MARTIVAL,|| son and heir to Sir Aukitell de Mar- 
tivall, Knight (who gave for his arms Argent a cinquefoil Sable), 

" Bishop Godwin, in vita T. Corbridge, 

t Burton s Description of this County, p. 257. 

I Godwin, in the Bishops of Bath and Wells. T. Walsingham. 

II Bishop Godwin writeth him " Mortivall." 



230 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 

was born at Nowsley in this county. He was first archdeacon 
of Leicester, then dean of Lincoln, and at last consecrated bishop 
Salisbury, in the reign of king Edward the Second, 1315. Now 
seeing Bishop Godwin hath nothing more of him save his name 
and date, it is charity further to inform posterity that he was the 
last heir male of his house, and founded a college at Nowsley, 
temp. Edw. I. for a warden and certain brethren, which in the 
24th of Henry VI. was valued to dispend yearly (besides all 
charges) 61. 18*. 4d. His estate descended to Joyce de Marti- 
vall, his sister, married unto Sir Ralph Hastings, lineal ancestor 
to the now Earl of Huntingdon. As for the manor of Now r sley, 
as it came with the mother, so it went away with her daughter, 
into the family of the Herons ; and by her daughter into the 
family of the Hazelriggs, who at this day are possessors thereof.* 
This bishop died in the midst of Lent, 1329. 

ROBERT WIVILL was born of worthy and wealthy parentage 
at Stanton Wivill in this county.f At the instance of Philippa, 
queen to king Edward the Third, the Pope, anno 1329, preferred 
him bishop of Salisbury. It is hard to say whether he were 
more dunce or dwarf, more unlearned or unhandsome, insomuch 
that T. Walsingham tells us, that had the Pope ever seen him 
(as no doubt he felt him in his large fees) he would never have 
conferred the place upon him. 

He sate bishop more than forty-five years, and impleaded 
William Mountague earl of Salisbury in a writ of right for the 
castle of Salisbury. The earl chose the trial* by battle ; which 
the bishop accepted of, and both produced their champions into 
the place. The combatant for the bishop coming forth all clad 
in white, with the bishop s own arms, viz. Gules fretty Vaire, a 
chief Or,| impaled no doubt with them of his see, on his sur- 
coat. 

Some highly commended the zeal of the bishop, asserting the 
rights of his church ; whilst others condemn this in him, as an 
unprelatical act, God allowing duels no competent deciders of 
such differences. And moderate men, to find out an expedient, 
said, he did this, not as a bishop, but baron. The best \vas, the 
matter was taken up by the king s interposing ; and the bishop, 
with 2500 marks, bought of the earl the quiet possession of the 
castle; and died anno Domini 1375, being buried under a mar 
ble stone about the middle of the choir. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

JOSEPH HALL was born at Ashby de la Zouch in this county, 
where his father, under the earl of Huntingdon, was governor 
or bailiff of the town. So soon almost as Emanuel College was 

Burton, in his Description of Leicestershire, page 211. 
t Idem, page 269. 
t Godwin, in the Bishops of Salisbury. Burton, ut prius. 



PRELATES STATESMEN. 231 

admitted into Cambridge, he was admitted into that college, 
within few years after the first foundation thereof. He passed 
all his degrees with great applause. First, noted in the univer 
sity for his ingenuous maintaining (be it truth or paradox) that 
" Mundus senescit," (the world groweth old). Yet, in some 
sort, his position confuteth his position, the wit and quickness 
whereof did argue an increase rather than a decay of parts in 
this latter asre. 

o 

He was first beneficed by Sir Robert Drury at Halstead in 
Suffolk ; and thence removed by Edward Lord Denny (after 
ward Earl of Norwich) to Waltham Abbey in Essex. Here I 
must pay the tribute of my gratitude to his memory, as building 
upon his foundation, beholding myself as his great-grandchild 
in that place, three degrees from him in succession : but oh ! 
how many from him in ability. His little catechism hath done 
great good in that populous parish ; and I could wish that ordi 
nance more generally used all over England. 

Being doctor of divinity, he was sent over by king James to 
the Synod of Dort, whence only indisposition of body forced 
him to return before the rest of his colleagues. He was pre 
ferred first dean of Worcester, then bishop of Exeter, then bishop 
of Norwich, then bishop of no place : surviving to see his sacred 
function buried before his eyes. He may be said to have died 
with his pen in his hand, whose writing and living expired to 
gether. He was commonly called our English Seneca,* for the 
pureness, plainness, and fulness of his style. Not unhappy at 
controversies, more happy at comments, very good in his cha 
racters, better in his sermons, best of all in his meditations. 
Nor will it be amiss to transcribe the following passage out of 
his will : 

" In the name of God, Amen. I Joseph Hall, D.D., not 
worthy to be called bishop of Norwich, &c. First, I bequeath 
my soul, &c. My body I leave to be interred, without any fune 
ral pomp, at the discretion of my executors ; with this only 
monition, that I do not hold God s house a meet repository for 
the dead bodies of the greatest saints."t 

He died September the 8th, anno Domini 1656; and was 
buried at Higham near Norwich. 

STATESMEN. 

GEORGE VILLIERS was born at Brokesby in this county, 
fourth son to his father Sir George Villiers, and second son to 
his mother Mary Beaumont. Being debarred (by his late na 
tivity) from his father s lands, he was happy in his mothers 
love, maintaining him in France, till he returned one of the com- 
pletest courtiers in Christendom, his body and behaviour mutu- 
tually gracing one another. 

* Sir H. Wotton, in his Letter to Dr. Collins F. 
f Examinat. R. Richard. 



232 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 

Sir Thomas Luke may be said to have ushered him into the 
English court ; whilst the Lady Lucy, Countess of Bedford, led 
him by the one hand, and William Earl of Pembroke by the 
other, supplying him with a support far above his patrimonial 
income. The truth is, Somerset s growing daily more weari 
some, made Villiers hourly more welcome to king James. 

Soon after, he was knighted, created successively Baron, Vis 
count Villiers, Earl, Marquis, Duke of Buckingham ; and, to 
bind all his honours the better together, the noble Garter was 
bestowed upon him. And now offices at court (not being already 
void) were voided for him. The earl of Worcester was per 
suaded to part with his place of Master of the Horse, as the 
earl of Nottingham with his office of Admiral ; and both con 
ferred on the duke. 

He had a numerous and beautiful female kindred, so that 
there was hardly a noble stock in England into which one of 
these his scions was not grafted. Most of his nieces were 
matched with little more portion than their uncle s smiles, the 
forerunner of some good office or honour to follow on their 
husbands. Thus with the same act did he both gratify his 
kindred, and fortify himself with noble alliance. 

It is seldom seen that two kings (father and son) tread succes 
sively in the same tract as to a favourite ; but here king Charles 
had as high a kindness for the duke as king James. Thence 
forward he became the plenipotentiary in the English court, 
some of the Scottish nobility making room for him by their 
seasonable departure out of this life. The earl of Bristol was 
jostled out, the bishop of Lincoln cast flat on the floor, the earls 
of Pembroke and Carlisle content to shine beneath him, Hol 
land behind him, none even with, much less before him. 

But it is generally given to him who is the little god at 
the court, to be the great devil in the country. The common 
alty hated him with a perfect hatred ; and all miscarriages in 
church and state, at home, abroad, at sea and land, were charged 
on his want of wisdom, valour, or loyalty. 

John Felton, a melancholy mal-contented gentleman, and a 
sullen soldier, apprehending himself injured, could find no other 
way to revenge his conceived wrongs, than by writing them with 
a point of a knife in the heart of the duke, whom he stabbed 
at Portsmouth, anno Domini 1620. It is hard to say how many 
of this nation were guilty of this murder, either by public 
praising, or private approving thereof. 

His person from head to foot could not be charged with any 
blemish, save that some hypercritics conceived his brows some 
what over-pendulous, a cloud which in the judgment of others 
was by the beams of his eyes sufficiently dispelled. The reader 
is remitted for the rest of his character to the exquisite epitaph 
on his magnificent monument in the chapel of Henry the 
Seventh. 



JUDGES. 233 



CAPITAL JUDGES. 

[AMP.] Sir ROBERT BELKNAP. Being bred in the study 
of the laws, he became chief justice of the Common Pleas, 
October the 8th, in the 48th of king Edward the Third ; and 
so continued till the general rout of the judges, in the wonder 
working parliament, the eleventh of Richard the Second, when 
he was displaced on this occasion. 

The king had a mind to make away certain lords ; viz. his 
uncle the duke of Gloucester, the earls of Arundel, Warwick, 
Derby, Nottingham, &c. who in the former parliament had been 
appointed governors of the kingdom. For this purpose, he 
called all the judges before him to Nottingham, where the king s 
many questions in fine were resolved into this, " Whether he 
might by his regal power revoke what was acted in parliament ?" 
To this all the judges, Sir William Skipwith alone excepted, 
answered affirmatively, and subscribed it. 

This Belknap underwrote unwillingly, as foreseeing the dan 
ger, and, putting to his seal, said these words : 

" There wants nothing but a hurdle, a horse, and a halter, to 
carry me where I may suffer the death I deserve ; for, if I had 
not done this, I should have died for it ; and because I have 
done it, I deserve death for betraying the lords/ 

Yet it had been more for his credit and conscience, to have 
adventured a martyrdom in the defence of the laws, than to 
hazard the death of a malefactor in the breach thereof. But 
judges are but men; and most desire to decline that danger 
which they apprehend nearest unto them. 

In the next parliament, all the judges were arrested in West 
minster-hall of high treason ; when there was a vacation in term 
time, till their places were re-supplied. Sir R. Tresilian, chief 
justice of the King s Bench, was executed : the rest thus named 
and reckoned up in the printed statutes;* Robert Belknap, 
John Holt, John Cray, William Burgh, Roger Fulthorp, all 
judges and knights, with J. Locktan, serjeant at law, had their 
lands (save what were entailed) with their goods and chattels, 
forfeited to the king, their persons being banished ; and they, 
by the importunate intercession of the queen, hardly escaping 
with their lives. 

Belknap is placed in this county, only because I find a wor 
shipful family of his name fixed therein, whereof one was high 
sheriff in the 17th of king Henry the Seventh ; provided this 
be no prejudice to Sussex, the same namef being very ancient 
therein. 

Sir ROBERT CATELIN, descended from the ancient family 

* Anno 11 Rich. II. cap. 4. f Camden s Britannia, in Sussex. 



234 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE* 

of the Catelins of Raunds in Northamptonshire (as doth appear 
by the heralds visitation) was born at Beby in this county.* 
He was bred in the study of the municipal laws ; profiting so 
well therein, that, in the first of queen Elizabeth, he was made 
lord chief justice of the King s Bench. His name hath some 
allusion to the Roman senatorf who was the incendiary of that 
state, though in nature far different, as who by his wisdom and 
gravity was a great support to his nation. 

One point of law I have learned from him, at the trial of 
Thomas duke of Norfolk, who pleaded out of Bracton, " that 
the testimonies of foreigners" (the most pungent that were 
brought against him) " were of no validity ." Here Sir Robert 
delivered it for law, " that, in case of treason, they might be 
given in for evidence ; and that it rested in the breast of the 
peers, whether or no to afford credit unto them." J 

He had one (as what man hath not many) fancy, that he had 
a prejudice against all those who write their names with an 
alias ; and took exceptions at one in this respect, saying, " that 
no honest man had a double name, or came in with an alias" 
The party asked him what exceptions his lordship could take at 
Jesus Christ, alias Jesus of Nazareth. 

He died in the sixteenth year of queen Elizabeth ; and his 
coat of arms [viz. Partie per chevron Azure and Or, three 
lions passant gardant counterchanged, a chief pearl] is quar 
tered by the right honourable the Lord Spencer, earl of 
Sunderland ; this judge s daughter and sole heir being married 
to his ancestor. 

Some forty years since, a gentleman of his name and kindred 
had a cause in the Upper Bench ; to whom the chief justice 
therein said, " Your kinsman was my predecessor in the court, 
and a great lawyer." " My lord (replied the gentleman) he 
was a very honest man, for he left a small estate." But indeed, 
though his estate was not considerable, compared to his succes 
sors then present, it was in itself of a good valuation. 

WRITERS. 

WILLIAM DE LEICESTER, otherwise called William de 
Montibus (which I would willingly English William of the 
Wolds), was born in Leicester in this county; bred in Ox 
ford, where he was doctor and professor of divinity, so eminent 
for his learning that he was known to and much beloved by the 
nobility of the land.|| He was also known by the name of 
Mr. William,^ an evidence, I assure you, sufficient to avouch 
his magisterially in all learning. 

He was removed to Lincoln ; and became first canon, then 

1 So I have learned by his relations. F. f L. Catilina. 

Camden s Elizabeth, anno 1572. Idem, in his Remains, p. 147. 

|| Pits, de Anglise Scriptoribus, p. 285. ^ Idem, ibidem. 



WRITERS. 235 

chancellor of the church. Boston of Bury reckoneth up many 
and learned books of his making. He flourished under king 
John, 1210; and lieth buried at Lincoln. 

RICHARD BELGRAVE was born, saith J. Pits,* at Chichester 
in Sussex ; but at Belgrave in Leicestershire, saith Mr. William 
Burton,f whom I rather believe, because he wrote a particular 
description of this county. Now surely the more is the exact 
ness of the author, the less the extent of his subject, especially 
making it his set-work (what was Pits s by-work) to observe the 
natives of this shire. But both agree him to be a Carmelite, 
bred in Cambridge, an excellent divine and good schoolman, 
more learned than eloquent. He wrote one book of " Theolo 
gical Determinations," and another of " Ordinary Questions," 
flourishing in- the year 1220, under king Edward the Second. 

ROBERT de LEICESTER was born therein, but bred in Oxford 
a Franciscan friar. He was one of those who brought preach 
ing into fashion in that age, and was much esteemed for his 
faculty therein, by most of the nobility. But Robert Mascall 
bishop of Hereford (as pious and learned as any in that age) 
had an extraordinary affection for him.J Our Leicestrian Ro 
bert appeareth also a good chronologer, having written judici 
ously of the Hebrew and Roman computation. In his reduced 
age, he retired to Lichfield, where he died, and was buried in 
the monastery of the Franciscans, 1348. 

THOMAS RATCLIF, born at Ratcliffe in this county, was bred 
an Augustinian in Leicester, where he was Ordinis sui Episco- 
pus,,\\ strain the word no higher than to overseer of his order. 
He had ingenium fecundum et amplum ; and pity it was, that he 
had vitce institulum sterile et anyustum. However, to enlarge 
his soul, he wrote divers books, and flourished anno 1360. 

BARTHOLOMEW CUL.IE was born at Radcliffe-Culie in this 
county, as the exact describer thereof avoucheth.^I And there 
fore Pits committeth a double mistake about this one writer, 
first calling him Conway, and then making him a Welchman by 
his nativity.** How hard is it to commit one, and but one, 
error ! This Bartholomew was an excellent philosopher, and 
wrote a book of " Generation and Corruption ; " and although 
J. Pits confesseth himself ignorant of the time he lived in, my 
author assureth me that he flourished under king Edward the 
Third. 

* De Scriptoribus Britannicis, in anno 1320. 
In his Description of Leicestershire, p. 40. 
t Understand it after the death of Robert of Leicester. 
Pits, de Angliae Scriptoribus, hoc anno. [| Bale, Cent. vi. num. 14. 

If Burton, in his Description of Leicestershire, p. 229. ** In Appendice. 



236 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 

WILLIAM de LUBBENHAM was born at Lubbenham in this 
county; brought up in Oxford; a good philosopher and a 
divine ;* was after a White friar, or Carmelite, in Coventry ; 
and after became provincial of the order, which place he kept 
till he died. He wrote upon "Aristotle s Posteriors ;" and one 
book of " Ordinary Questions." He died in the White Friars, 
in Coventry, 1361, in the 36th year of king Edward the 
Third. 

JEFFERY de HARBY was born at Harby in this county ; and 
bred in Oxford, where he became provincial of the Augustines, 
and confessor to king Edward the Third. Wonder not when 
meeting with so many confessors to that king, presuming 
he had but one at one time, conscience not standing on state 
and variety in that kind. For know king Edward reigned fifty 
years ; and confessors being aged before admitted to their place, 
his vivaciousness did wear out many of them. Besides, living 
much beyond the seas, it is probable that he had his foreign 
and his home confessors. Our Jeffery was also of his privy 
council, being as prudent to advise in matters politic, as pious in 
spiritual concernments. Such as admired he was not preferred 
to some wealthy bishopric, must consider that he was ambitious 
and covetous to be poor, and wrote a violent book in the praise 
and perfection thereof against Armachanus. Dying in London, 
he was buried in the church of the Augustines, about the 
year 1361. 

WILLIAM de FOLVIL was born at Ashby-Folvil in this 
county ; and therefore, when Bale calleth him Lincolniensem,^ 
understand him not by county, but by diocese. He was bred 
a Franciscan in the university of Cambridge; and engaged 
himself a great master of defence in that doughty quarrel pro 
pueris induendis, that children under the age of eighteen might 
be admitted into monastical orders : for whereas this was then 
complained of as a great and general grievance ; that by such 
preposterous cowling of boys, and veiling of girls, parents were 
cozened out of their children, and children cozened out of them 
selves, doing in their minority they knew not what, and repent 
ing in their maturity, not knowing what to do ; our Folvil, with 
more passion than reason, maintained the legality thereof. He 
died and was buried in StamfordjJ anno 1384. 

HENRY de KNIGHTON was born at Knighton in this county ; 
sometime abbot of Leicester; who wrote his "History from 
William the Conqueror to the time of king Richard the Second," 
in whose reign he died. 

It seemeth Lelandus non vidit omnia, nor his shadow Bale, 

* Leland, do Scriptoribus Britannicis, 265. 

f Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent, vi, num. 72. J Idem, p. 491. 



WRITERS. 237 

nor his shadow Pits ; all three confessing that the history of this 
Knighton never came to their hands ; whereas of late it hath 
been fairly printed, with other historians, on the commendable 
cost of Cornelius Bee. Thus it is some comfort and content 
ment to such whom nature hath denied to be mothers that they 
may be dry nurses, and dandle babes in their laps, whom they 
cannot bear in their wombs. And thus this industrious sta 
tioner (though no father) hath been foster-father to many 
worthy books, to the great profit of posterity. 

WILLIAM WOODFORD, I cannot fix his nativity with any 
certainty, because so many Woods and Fords ; (and would the 
former did continue as well as the latter !) and consequently so 
many towns called Woodfords in England. He is placed here, 
because his surname in this age flourished in great eminency in 
this county.* He was bred a Franciscan ; and though bilious 
Bale giveth him the character of Indoctt Doctus^ we learn from 
Leland, that he was one of profound learning, and Thomas 
WaldensisJ owneth and calleth him magistrum suum, his 
master. 

Indeed Woodford set him the first copy of railing against 
Wickliffe, being deputed by Thomas Arundel archbishop of 
Canterbury to confute, publicly in writing, his opinions. He 
died and was buried at Colchester 1397. 

THOMAS LANGTON was born at West-Langton in this 
county ; bred a Carmelite in London, but first brought up in 
Oxford. He wrote a book of their own " Ordinary Acts ;" 
another called "The Trial of Henry Cramp, Doctor in Divi 
nity;" another book against the errors of the said Doctor 
Crump. Reader, we are beholden to my author for retrieving 
this writer s memory, which otherwise appears not in Leland, 
Bale, or Pits. He flourished under king Henry the Fourth, 
anno Domini 1400. 

ROBERT de HARBY was born at Harby in this county; bred 
a Carmelite in their convent at Lincoln. He seems to be a 
doctor in divinity, || and surely was a great adorer of the Vir 
gin Mary, writing many sermons of her festivities. He flou 
rished 1450. 

RICHARD TURPIN was born at Knaptoft^[ in this county, 

* Burton, in his Description of Leicestershire, p. 23. 

f De Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. vii. num. 33. 

j: Libro de Sacrament, c. 50. 

Burton, in his Description of this Shire, p. 157. 

|| Pits, de Anglise Scriptoribus, anno 1450. 

Tf Burton, in his Description of Leicestershire, p. 153. 



238 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 

very lately (if not still) in the possession of that ancient family,* 
and was one of the gentlemen of the English garrison of Calais in 
France in the reign of king Henry VIII. Such soldiers generally 
in time of war had too much, in time of peace too little work, to 
employ themselves therein. Commendable therefore the indus 
try of this Richard, who spent his spare hours in writing of a 
" Chronicle of his Time." He died anno Domini 1541, in the 
thirty-fifth year of the aforesaid king s reign.f This I observe 
the rather, that the reader may not run with me on the rock of 
the same mistake, who in my apprehension confounded him 
with Richard Turpin the herald, first Blue-mantle, and then 
created Windsor, in the beginning of queen Elizabeth. 

WRITERS SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

HENRY SMITH, commonly called silver-tongued Smith, 
preacher at St. Clement Danes. But I refer the reader to his 
life writ by me at large, and preposed to his printed sermons. 

JOHN DUPORT, D. D. son to Thomas Duport, esquire, was 
born at Shepeshead in this county ; bred fellow, then master, of 
Jesus College in Cambridge; once proctor, and thrice vice- 
chancellor, of that university. He was one of the translators of 
the Bible, and a reverend man in his generation, who bestowed 
the perpetual advowsance of the rectory of Harston on the col 
lege. Men generally in Scripture are notified by their fathers, 
seldom by their sons ; as, Simon of Cyrene, father of Alex 
ander and Rufus,J persons (no doubt) "of signal worth in that age. 
Thus this doctor is remarkable for his son (by Rachel daughter 
to Richard Cox bishop of Ely) James Duport, D. D. fellow of 
Trinity College, and lately Greek professor ; happy in the edu 
cation of many hopeful pupils of worship and honour, as they 
more happy in so able a tutor. His father, Dr. John Duport, 
deceased 1617. 

WILLIAM BURTON, Esquire, son of Ralph Burton of Lindley 
in this county (who had a more ancient inheritance belonging to 
his name at Falde in Staffordshire) a place remarkable, because 
no adder, snake v or lizard (common in the confines) were ever 
seen therein ; as if it were a land-island, and an Ireland in 
England. This William was born at Lindley, August 24, 1575; || 
bred in Brazen-nose College ; and wrote an alphabetical descrip 
tion of the towns and villages in this county, with the arms and 
pedigrees of the most ancient gentry therein. The sparks of 
his ingenuity herein have since set fire on Mr. Dugdale, my 
worthy friend, to do the like to Warwickshire (lately under one 

Not only the ancient family of Turpin, but their mansion, and even the parish 
church, are blended in one common ruin ; and Knaptoft is now a deserted vil 
lage ED. f Weever s Funeral Monuments, p. 682. I Mark xv. 21. 
Description of Leicestershire, p. 174. || Idem, p. 68. 



WRITERS. 239 

sheriff with Leicestershire ;) and I hope in process of time they 
may inflame many others into imitation, that so (give me leave 
to match an English and Greek word together) the county-gra- 
phy of our land may be completed. 

ROBERT BURTON, his younger brother, born Feb. 8, 1575, 
afterwards student of Christ s Church Oxon, and bachelor of 
divinity. He wrote an excellent book (commonly called " De- 
mocritus Junior,") of "The Anatomy of Melancholy" (none to 
the native, to describe a country), wherein he hath piled up va 
riety of much excellent learning. On whose tomb is this epi 
taph : 

" Faucis notus, paucioribus ignotus ; 
Hie jacet Democritus junior, 
Cui vitam pariter et mortem 
Dedit Melancholia. 

Scarce any book of philology in our land hath in so short a 
time passed so many impressions. He died rector of Segrave 
(presented by his patron George Lord Berkeley) in this county, 
about 1636.* 

RICHARD VINES was born at Blaston in this county; and 
bred in Magdalen College in Cambridge, where he commenced 
master of arts. Now although many healthful souls in their age 
break out in their youth, he was never given to any extravagancy. 
Hence he was chosen school-master of Hinckley in this county, 
a profession wherein many a good minister hath been (and it is 
pity that any but a good man should be) employed. Entering 
the ministry, after other intermediate places (such as are his cen- 
surers would be his compurgators, if privy to the weighty causes 
of his just removal), he was fixed at last at St. Lawrence Jewry 
in London. 

An excellent preacher, skilful to cut out doctrines in their 
true shape, naturally raised, to sew them up with strong 
stitches, substantially proved, and set them on with advantage 
on such backs who should wear them, effectually applied. 

He was one (yea, I may say one of sevenscore) in the assem 
bly ; the champion of their party, therefore called their Luther, 
much employed in their treaties at Uxbridge and Isle of Wight. 
His majesty, though of a different judgment, valued him for his 
ingenuity, seldom speaking unto him without touching (if not 
moving) his hat ; which by Master Vines was returned (though 
otherwise blunt and unobservant) with most respectful language 
and gestures ; which I will not say was done by all his fellow 
divines there present. 

He was most charitably moderate to such as dissented from 
him, though most constant to his own principles ; witness his 

* He died Jan. 25, 1639. See the " History of Leicestershire, Vol. III. p. 
418, where a portrait of him is given. 



240 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 

forsaking of his mastership of Pembroke-hall for refusing of the 
engagement. Such who charged him with covetousness, are 
confuted with the small estate he left to his wife and children. 

It seemeth that the sand in his hour-glass (though sticking 
high on each side) was but hollow in the middle, for it sunk 
down on sudden. Visible decays appeared in him a year before 
his death, though rather in his limbs than parts, spirits than 
spirit. But, alas, the best mind cannot make good music where 
the instrument of the body is out of tune ; his speech grew very 
low. Not a week before his death, preaching in St. Gregory s, 
a rude fellow cried out unto him, " Lift up your voice, for I 
cannot hear you ;" to whom Mr. Vines returned, f( Lift you up 
your ears, for I can speak no louder." 

Indeed his strength was much spent by his former pains, so 
that some suppose, had he wrought less, he had lived longer. 
He was buried Feb. the 7th, 1655, in his own parish church, 
where Mr. Jacomb modestly and learnedly performed his fune 
ral sermon. Much lamented, as by many others, so by his own 
parish, where he piously endeavoured to make them all of one 
piece who were of different colours, and to unite their judg 
ments who dissented in affections. 

JOHN CLEVELAND was born in this county at Hinckley 
(where his father was vicar), and bred therein under Mr. 
Richard Vines his schoolmaster. He was afterwards scholar of 
Christ s, then fellow of St. John s, in Cambridge ; and during 
the late civil wars was much conversant in the garrison of 
Newark, where, as I am informed, he had the place of advocate 
general. 

A general artist, pure Latinist, exquisite orator, and (which 
was his master-piece) eminent poet. His epithets were preg 
nant with metaphors, carrying in them a difficult plainness, dif 
ficult at the hearing, plain at the considering thereof. His 
lofty fancy may seem to stride from the top of one mountain to 
the top of another, so making to itself a constant level and cham 
paign of continued elevations. 

Such who have Clevelandized, endeavouring to imitate his 
masculine style, could never go beyond the hermophrodite, still 
betraying the weaker sex in their deficient conceits. Some 
distinguish between the vein and strain of poetry, making the 
former to flow with facility, the latter pressed with pains, and 
forced with industry. Master Cleveland s poems do partake of 
both, and are not to be the less valued by the reader, because 
most studied by the writer thereof. As for his anagram " JOHN 
CLEVELAND," (Heliconean Dew), the difficult trifle, I confess, 
is rather well endeavoured than exactly performed. He died 
on Thursday morning the 29th of April 1658, at his chamber in 
Grey s Inn, from whence his body was brought to Hunsdon 
House, and on Saturday, being May-day, was buried at College 



WRITERS. 241 

Hill Church, Mr. John Pearson, his good friend, preaching his 
funeral sermon. He rendered this reason why he cautiously 
declined all commending of the party deceased, because such 
praising of him would not be adequate to any expectation in 
that auditory, seeing such who knew him not, would suspect it 
far above, whilst such who were acquainted with him did know 
it much beneath, his due desert. The self-same consideration 
shall put a period to my pen in his present character ; only this 
I will add, that never so eminent a poet was interred with fewer 
(if any remarkable) elegies upon him. 

I read in an excellent author,* how one Johannes Passerati- 
vus, professor of the Latin tongue in the university of Paris, 
being no bad poet (but morose and conceited of himself) 
forbade by his dying words, under an imprecation, " that his 
hearse should be burthened with bad funeral verses; " where 
upon out of fear to offend his ghost, very few verses were made 
upon him. Too much the modesty and charity of Mr. Cleve- 
ind, by any such injunction to obstruct his friends expressing 
-heir affection to his memory. Be it rather imputed to the 
royal party, at that juncture of time generally in restraint, so 
that their fancies may seem in some sort to sympathise with the 
confining of their persons, and both in due season may be 
enlarged. 

Of such verses as came to my hand these were not the worst, 
made by my good friendf since deceased, 

" Ye Muses, do not me deny, 

I ever was your votary ; 

And tell me, seeing you do deign 

T" inspire and feed the hungry brain, 

With what choice cates, with what choice fare 

Ye Cleveland s fancy still repair ? 
Fond man, say they, who dost thou question thus ? 
Ask rather with what nectar he feeds us." 

But I am informed, that there is a book intended by the 
poets of our age, in the honour of his memory, who was so 
eminent a member of their society. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

Sir JOHN POULTNEY, Knight, was born in this county, at 
Poultney in the parish of Misterton ; bred in the city of Lon 
don, and became four times lord mayor thereof =J He built a 
college, to the honour of Jesus and Corpus Christi, for a master 
and seven chaplains in St. Laurence church in Caiidleweek 
Street in London, in the 20th of Edward the Third, which 
church was after denominated of him St. Laurence Poultney. 

He built the parish church of Allhallows the Less in 
Thames-street, and the monastery of White Friars in Coventry, 

* Thuanus, do Obit. Virorum Illustrium, anno 1C02. 

Mr. Edward Martin, of London. 
J Burton s Description of Leicestershire, p. 191. 
VOL. II. R 



242 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 

and a fair chapel on the north side of St. Paul s in London, 
where he lieth buried, who died 1349, the 24th year of Edward 
the Third. He was a great benefactor to the hospital of St. 
Giles by Holborn, and gave many great legacies to the relief of 
prisoners and the poor.* 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

Reader, if any demand of me the names of the natives of this 
county, benefactors to the public since the Reformation, all my 
answer is, " Non sum informatus ; " and let the court judge 
whether this be the fault of the council of or the client ; and I 
doubt not but the next, age will supply the defects hereof. 
Only, postliminio, I have, by the help of my good friend, f at 
last recovered one who may keep possession of the place till 
others be added unto him. 

ROBERT SMITH, citizen and merchant tailor of London, was 
born at Market Harborough in this county, and became con 
troller of the chamber of London, and one of the four attorneys 
in the mayor s court. A painful person in his place, witness 
the many remaining monuments of his industry, whilst he acted 
in his office, betwixt the years 1609 and 1617- Nor was his 
piety any whit beneath his painfulness, who delivered to the 
chamberlain of London seven hundred and fifty pounds to pur 
chase lands for the maintenance of a lecturer in the town of his 
nativity, as also for several other pious uses, as in the settlement 
of those lands are particularly expressed. J He died, as I col 
lect, about 1618. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

Know, reader, that by an unavoidable mischance the two 
first following persons, who should have been entered under the 
topic of Soldiers, are (with no disgrace, I conceive) remem 
bered in this place. 

EDMOND APPLEBIE, Knight, was son to John Applebie, 
esquire, and born at Great Appleby, whence their family 
fetched their name, and where at this day (I hope) they have 
their habitation. He was a mighty man of arms, who served at 
the battle of Crescy, the 20th of king Edward the Third, where 
he took Monsieur Robert du Mailarte, a nobleman of France, 
prisoner. Now know, though the pens of our home-bred his 
torians may be suspected of partiality, yet English achievements 
acknowledged by French authors, such as Froissart is, who 

* Stow s Survey of London, p. 81. 
f Mr. Rawlins, one of the Lord Mayor s Court. 

\ For an account of these benefactions, still honourably supported, see Nichols s 
History of Leicestershire, vol. II. p. 498. ED. 
Burton s Leicestershire, p. 14. 



MEMORABLE PERSONS. 243 

taketh signal notice thereof, commandeth belief. Afterwards, 
in the eighth year of Richard the Second, he went into France, 
with John of Gaunt duke of Lancaster, to treat of a peace 
betwixt both kingdoms. Lastly, in the ninth of Richard the 
Second, he accompanied the said duke and the lady Constance 
his wife, daughter and co-heir of Peter king of Castile, in his 
voyage into Castile, who then went over with a great power to 
invest himself in the said kingdom, which by descent belonged 
to his wife, and was then usurped by Henry, base brother unto 
king Peter. 

JOHN HERDWICKE, Esq. born at Lindley in this county, 
was a very low man (stature is no standard of stoutness) but of 
great valour, courage, and strength. This is he, though the tra 
dition goeth by an unknown name, by whose good conduct, 
Henry earl of Richmond, afterwards king Henry the Seventh, in 
the battle of Bosworth, got the advantage of ground, wind, and 
sun, each singly considerable, but little less "than an army in 
themselves when all put together.* Besides, he assisted him 
with the service of many men and horses. He died 1511, leav 
ing six daughters and co-heirs ; and was buried at Nuneaton in 
Warwickshire. 

JOHN POULTNEY, born in Little Sheppey, was herein re 
markable, that in his sleep he did usually rise out of his bed, 
dress himself, open the doors, walk round about the fields, and 
return to his bed not wakened. Sometimes he would rise in his 
sleep, take a staff, fork, or any other kind of weapon that was 
next his hand, and therewith lay about him, now striking, now 
defending himself, as if he were then encountered or charged 
with an adversary, not knowing (being awaked) what had passed. 
He afterwards went to sea with that famous but unfortunate Sir 
Hugh Willoughby, knight, and was (together with all the fleet) 
frozen to death in the north-east passage, about Nova Zembla.f 

HENRY NOEL, Esquire. I will incur the reader s deserved 
displeasure, if he appear not most memorable in his generation. 
He was younger son to Sir Andrew Noel, of Dalby in this 
county, who for person, parentage, grace, gesture, valour, and 
many other excellent parts (amongst which, skill in music), was 
of the first rank in the Court. And though his lands and live 
lihood were small, having nothing known certain but his 
annuity and pension as gentleman to queen Elizabeth, yet in 
state, pomp, magnificence, and expences, did ever equalize the 
barons of great worth. If any demand whence this proceeded, 
the Spanish proverb answers him, 

That which cometh from above, let no man question." 

Being challenged by an Italian gentleman to play at baloun, 

* Burton s Leicestershire, p. 174. ] Idem, p. 254. 

R 2 



244 



WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 



he so heated his blood, that, falling into a fever, he died thereof, 
and, by her majesty s appointment, was buried in the Abbey of 
Westminster, and chapel of.St. Andrew, anno 1596. 

LORD MAYORS. 

1. Geffrey Fielding,* son of William Fielding, of Lutterworth, 

Mercer, 1452. 

2. William Heriot, son of John Heriot, of Segrave, Draper, 1481. 

3. Robert Billesdon, son of Alex. Billesdon, of Queenings- 

borough, Haberdasher, 1483. 

4. Christoph. Draper, son of John Draper, of Melton-Mowbray, 

Ironmonger, 1566. 

5. George Bolles, son of Thomas Bolles, of Newbold, Grocer, 

1617. 

SHERIFFS 
OF LEICESTER AND WARWICK-SHIRE. 



HEN. II. 

Anno 

1 Geffrey Clinton. 

2 Robert Fitz Hugh. 

3 Idem. 

4 William de Bello Campo, et 
Robert Fitz Hardulph. 

5 Bertram de Bulmer, et 
Raph Basset. 

6 Raph Basset. 

7 W. Basset, for Raph his 

brother. 

8 Robert Fitz Geffrey, et 
William Basset. 

9 William Basset. 

10 Rap. Glanvil, et W. Basset. 

11 William Basset, for five 

years. 

16 Bert, de Verdun, for ten 
years. 

26 Raph de Glanvil, et 
Bertram de Berder. 

27 Raph de Glanvil, et Bert. 

de Verdun, Arn. de Bur 
ton, Arn. de Barton, et 
Adam de Aldedelega. 

28 Raph de Glanvil, Adam 

de Aldedelega, Bertram 
de Verdun, A. de Bar 
ton. 

29 Idem. 



Anno 

30 Raph de Glanvil, et Ber 

tram de Verdun, 

31 Raph de Glanvil, et Mi 

chael Belet. 

32 Idem. 

33 Idem. 

RICH. I. 

1 Michael Belet. 

2 Hugh Bishop of Coventry. 

3 Hugh Bardolph et Hugh 

Clarkeo 

4 Hugh Bp. of Coventry, 

Gilbert de Segrave, et 
Reginald Basset. 

5 Reginald Basset. 

6 llegin. Basset, et Gilbert 

Segrave. 

7 Regin. Basset, Will. Au- 

bein, et Gilb. Segrave. 

8 Regin. Basset. 
9;Regin. Basset, Will. Au- 

. bein, et Gilb. Segrave. 
10 Robert Harecourt. 

REX JOHAN. 

1 Regin. Basset. 

2 Robert Harecourt. 

3 Rob. Harecourt, et Godfry 

de Liege. 



* He was privy councillor to king Henry VI. and king Edward IV F. 



SHERIFFS. 



245 



Anno Anno 

4 William de Cantelupe. 
Robert de Foyer. 

5 Robert Poyer. 

6 Hugh Chaucomber, for 

four years. 

10 Robert Roppest. 

1 1 Idem, 

12 William de Cantelupe. 
Rob, Poyer. 

13 Rob. Poyer, for five years. 

HEN. III. 

2 Will, de Cantelupe, et 
Phil. Kniton. 

3 Philip de Kniton. 

4 Idem. 

5 Will, de Cantelupe, et 
Will, de Luditon. 

6 Will, de Luditon. 

7 Idem. 

8 John Russell, et 
John Winterborne. 

9 Rob. Lupus. 

10 Idem. 

11 Idem. 

12 Will. Stutewill, et 
Will. Ascellis. 

13 Will. Ascellis. 

14 Stephen, de Segrave, et 
Will. Edmonds. 

15 Will. Edmonds. 

16 Idem. 

17 Steph. de Segrave. 
Joh. de Ripariis. 

18 Raph Bray. 

19 Raph Fitz Nichol. 
Raph Brewedon. 

20 Raph et Will. Erleg. 

21 Will, de Lucy. 

22 Idem. 

23 Hugh Pollier, et 
Philip Ascett. 

24 Hugh Pollier, for eight 

years. 

32 Baldwin Paunton. 

33 Idem. 

34 Philip Murmuny. 



35 Idem. 

36 Idem. 

37 Will. Maunsel, for four 

years, 

41 Alan Swinford. 

42 Anketill Martivaus. 

43 Idem. 

44 Will. Bagot, for twelve 

years. 

56 Will. Morteyn, et 
Will. Bagot. 

EDW. I. 

1 William Mortimer. 

2 Idem. 

3 Idem. 

4 William Hamelin. 

5 Idem. 

6 Idem. 

7 Tho. de Hasele, et 
Robert Verdon. 

8 Robert Verdon, et Osb. 

Bereford, for five years. 

13 Rob. Verdon, Osbert Bere- 

ford, et Tho. Farendon. 

14 Idem. 

15 Tho. Farendon, et 
Foulk Lucy. 

16 Foulk Lucy. 

17 William Bonvill. 

18 Idem. 

19 Stephen Baber. 

20 Idem. 

21 Steph. Baber, et 
Will, de Castello. 

22 Will, de Castello, for five 

years. 

27 John Broughton. 

28 Idem. 

29 Philip Gayton. 

30 Idem. 

31 John Deane, et 
Richard Herehus. 

32 Idem. 

33 Idem. 

34 Richard Whitnere. 

35 Idem. 



246 



WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 



Anno 



EDW. II. 



1 John Deane, et 
Geffrey Segrave. 

2 Richard Herthull. 

3 Idem. 

4 John Deane. 

5 Idem. 

6 John Olney. 

7 Idem. 

8 William Trussell. 

9 Idem. 

10 Walter Beauchamp. 

11 Walter Beauchamp, et 
Will. Nevill. 

12 Raph Beler. 

13 William Nevill. 

14 Thomas le Rous. 

15 Idem. 
16 

17 



18 
19 



Hen. Nottingham, Rob. 
Morin, et Oliver Walleis. 
Idem. 
Idem. 



EDW. III. 



Anno 

2 Thomas Blancfront. 

3 Robert Burdet. 

4 Rob. Burdet, et 
Roger la Zouch. 

5 Roger Aylesbury. 

6 Idem. 

7 Hen. Hockley, et 
Roger de la Zouch. 

8 Roger de la Zouch, for 

seven years. 

15 William Peito. 

16 Robert Bereford. 

17 JohnWallis. 

18 Idem. 

19 Tho. Beauchamp, Earl of 

Warwick, for twenty- 
five years. 

44 John Peach. 

45 William Catesby. 

46 Richard Harthull. 

47 Roger Hillary. 

48 John Boyvill. 

49 John Burdet. 

50 William Breton. 

51 Richard Harthull. 



1 Roger Aylesbury. 



SHERIFFS OF LEICESTER AND WARWICK. 

RICHARD II. 

Anno Name and Arms. Place. 

1 Roger Perewich. 

2 J. de Bermingham. 

Per pale indented Arg. and S. 

3 Williel. Flamvil . . . Aston, Leic. 

Arg. a manche Az. 

4 Thomas Ralegh . . . Farnborough. 

Arg. seme of croslets G. a cross moline S. 

5 T. de Bermingham . . ut prius. 

6 Willielm. Baggot. 

7 Idem. 

8 Joh. Bermingham . . ut prius. 

9 Jo. Calveleigh, mil. 

Arg. a fess G. between three calves S. 

10 Johannes Parker . . . Olney, Warw. 

11 Richardus Ash by. 

Az. a chevron Erm. between three leopards heads O. 



SHERIFFS. 247 

Anno Name. Place. 

12 Williel. Flamvil . . . ut prius. 

13 Ado. de Lichfeld. 

14 Rob. de Harington. 

S. a fret Arg. 

15 Johann. Mallory . . . Swinford, Leic. 

O. three lions passant gardant S. 

16 Th. de Woodford . . Sproxton, Leic. 

S. three leopards^ heads feasant G. three flower-de-luces 
Arg. 

17 Thomas Ondeby. 

18 Robertus Veer. 

Quarterly G. and O. a mullet Arg. 

19 [AMP.] Henricus Nevill. 

20 Robert Goushul. 

21 Johan. Eynesford. 

22 Adomar de Lichfeld. 

HEN IV. 

1 Johan. Berkely, mil. . Wymondham. 

G. a chevron betwixt ten cinquefoils Arg. 

2 Hen. Nevill, mil. . . . ut prius. 

3 Alex. Trussel, mil. 

Arg. fretty G. ; on every point a bezant. 

4 Johannes Blaket . . . Nowesly, Leic. 

Az. a bend cotised between six cross croslets fitchee O. 

5 Idem ut prius. 

6 Jon. Berkley, mil. . . ut prius. 

7 Thomas Lucy . . . Charlcot, Warw. 

G. seme de croslets, three lucies hauriant Arg. 

8 Johannes Parr. 

Arg. two bars Az. a border engrailed S. 

9 Hen. Nevill, mil. . . ut prius. 

10 Will. Brokesby. 

Undee Arg. and S. ; a canton G. 

11 Robertus Castell . . . Withibroke. 

G. two bars and a castle in a canton Arg. 

12 Barth. Brokesby. . . ut prius. 

HEN. v. 

1 Tho. Crewe, arm. 

2 Rich, Hastings, mil. 

Arg. a manche S. 

3 Tho. Burdet, mil. . . Newton Burdet. 

Az. on two bars O. six martlets G. 

4 Johannes Mallory . . ut prius. 

5 Will, Bishopston. 

O. three bends S. ; a canton Erm. 

6 Johann. Salveyn. 

7 Barth. Brookesby . . ut prius. 



WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 



Name. Place. 

8 Tho. Ardington, et 

Tho. Maureward . . Cole-Orton, Leic. 
Az. a fess Arg. between three cinquefoils O. 

HEN. VI. 

1 Rich. Hastings, mil. . ut prius. 

2 Humph. Stafford . . Huncote, Leic. 

O. a chevron G. and a quarter Erm. 

3 Johann. Mallory . . . ut prius. 

4 Richar. Cloddale. 

5 Rich, Hastings, mil. . -ut prius. 

6 Thomas Stanley, 

Arg. on a bend Az. three bucks heads O. 

7 Willielmus Payto . . Chesterton. 

Barry of six pieces Arg. and G. per pale indented arid 
counterchanged. 

8 Nichol. Ruggeley. 

9 Humphr. Stafford . . ut prius. 
10 W. Mountford, mil. 

Bendy of ten pieces., O. and Az. 
1 1 Rich. Hastings, mil. . ut prius. 
Thorn. Foulshurst. 

13 Thorn. Ardington. 

14 Willielmus Lucy . v . ut prius. 

15 Wil. Payto, mil. . . v ut prius. 

16 Robertus Ardern. 

Erm. a fess cheeky O. and Az. 
1 7 Hum. Stafford, mil. . Grafton. 

18 Laurenc. Berkley . . ut prius. 

19 Thomas Ashby . . . Lowesby. 

Arms, ut prius. 

20 Will. Mountford . . ut prius. 

21 W. Bermingham . . . ut prius. 
Lawr. Sherrard . . . Stapleford, Leic. 

Arg. a chevron G. betwixt three torteaux. 

22 Idem ....... ut prius. 

23 Rob. Harecourt . . . Bosworth, L. 

O. two bars G. 

24 Tho. Erdington . . . Barrow, L. 

Arg. two lions passant O. 

25 Th. Everingham. 

G. a lion rampant vairy, couronn6 O. 

26 Tho. Porter, arm. et 

Will. Purefoy, arm. . . Drayton, L. 

S. three pair of gauntlets clipping (or joined together) 
Arg. 

27 Will. Purefoy. . . . ut prius. 






SHERIFFS. 249 

Anno Name. Place. 

28 Willielm. Lucy . . . ut prius. 

29 W. Mountford, mil. . ut prius. 

30 Rob. Motun, mil. . . Pekleton, L. 

Arg. a cinquefoil Az. 

31 W. Bermingham . . ut prius. 

32 Leonard Hastings . . Kerby, L. 

Arms, ut prius. 

33 Thomas Berkley . . ut prius. 

34 Williel. Hastings . . ut prius. 

35 Tho. Walsh, arm. .4- Wanlip, L. 

G. two bars gemews, a bend Arg. 

36 Tho. Maston, arm. 

37 H. Filongley, arm. . . Filongley, Warw. 

38 Edm. Mountford . . ut prius. 

EDW. IV. 

1 [AMP.] Tho. Ferrers, arm. 

2 Joh. Grevil, arm. 

S. a bordure and cross engrailed O. ; thereon five pellets. 

3 Idem ut prius. 

4 Will. Harecourt . . . ut prius. 

5 Joh. Huggford, arm. 

6 Th. Throgmorton . . Coughton, W. 

7 Rad. Woodford, arm. . Knipton, L. 

G. on a chevron Arg. three bars gemellee S, 

8 Edw. Rawleigh, mil. . ut prius. 

9 Tho. Ferrers, mil. . . ut prius. 

10 Joh. Grevil, mil. , . ut prius. 

11 Sim. Mountford . . . ut prius. 

12 Will. Motun, arm. . . ut prius. 

13 Joh. Higgford, arm. . ut prius. 

14 Joh. Grevil, mil. . . . ut prius. 

15 Will. Lucy, arm. . . ut prius. 

16 W. Trussell, mil. . . Elmesthorp, L. 

17 Johan. Bransitz. 

18 Joh. Grevill, mil. . . ut prius. 

19 Thorn. Poultney . . . Misterton, L. 

Arg. a fess indented G. ; in chief three leopards heads S. 

20 Rich. Boughton . . . Lauford, W. 

S. three crescents O. 

21 Thomas Cokesey. 

22 Edward Felding . . . Newnham, W. 

Arg. on a fess Az. three lozenges O. 

RICH. III. 

1 Thorn. Entwysel. 

Arg. on a bend S. three martlets of the field. 



250 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

2 Humph. Beaufort . . Guiesclif, W. 

Erm. on a bend Az. three cinquefoils O. 

3 R. Broughton, arm. et . ut prius. 
R. Throgmorton . . . ut prius. 

HENRY VII. 

1 Johannes Digby. 

Az. a flower-de-luce Arg. 

2 Henricus Lisle. 

O. a fess betwixt two chevrons S. 

3 R. Throgmorton . . . ut prius. 

4 Will. Lucy, mil. . . . ut prius. 

5 Tho. Brereton, arm. 

Arg. two bars S. 

6 Johan. Villars, arm. . . Brokesby, L. 

Arg. a cross G. five escalops O. 

7 R. Throgmorton . . . ut prius. 

8 Tho. Pulteney, mil. . . ut prius. 

9 Rad. Shirley, mil. . . Staunton, L, 

Paly of six O. and Az. a canton Erm. 

10 Johan. Villars, arm. . ut prius. 

11 Ed. Rawleigh, mil. . . ut prius. 

12 W. Brokesby. 

13 Tho. Nevill, arm. ^ . ut prius. 

14 Rich. Pudsey, mil. 

15 Joh. Villars, arm. . . ut prius. 

16 Tho. Hasilrig, arm. . . Nouseley, L. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three hazel-leaves V. 

17 Edw. Belknap, arm. 

18 Nich. Mallory, arm. . ut prius. 

19 Henricus Lysle, arm. . ut prius. 

20 Nich. Brome, arm. 

21 H. Willoughby. 

O. on two bars G. three water bougets Arg. 

22 Edw. Raleigh, mil. . . ut prius. 

23 Tho. Trussel, arm. . . ut prius. 

24 Will. Skevington . . Skevington. 

Arg. three bulls heads erased S. 

HENRY VIII. 

1 Simon Digby, arm. . . ut prius. 

2 Johan. Aston, mil. 

3 Maur. Berkley, arm. . . ut prius. 

4 Will. Turpin, arm. . . Knaptoft, L. 

G. on a bend Arg. three lions heads erased S. 

5 [AMP.] Edw. Ferers, mil. 

6 Johan. Digby, mil. , . ut prius. 

7 Will. Skevington . . ut prius. 



SHERIFFS. 251 

Anno Name. Place. 

8 Maur. Berkley, mil. . . ut prius. 

9 Simon Digby, arm. . . ut prius. 

10 Edw. Ferrers, mil. . . ut prius. 

11 Hen. Willoughby . . ut prius. 

12 Edw. Digby, arm. . . ut prius. 

13 Will. Skevington . . ut prius. 

14 Will. Browne, arm. 

15 Edw. Conway, arm. . . Ragley, W. 

S. on a bend between two cotises Arg. a rose G. between 
two annulets of the first. 

16 Tho. Lucy, mil. . . . ut prius. 

17 H. Willoughby, mil. . ut prius. 

18 G. Throgmorton, mil. . ut prius. 

19 Tho. Pultney, mil. . . ut prius. 

20 Rog. Ratcliffe, mil. 

Arg. a bend engrailed S. 

21 Rich. Verney, arm. 

Az. on a cross Arg. five mullets G. 

22 Christ. Villars, arm. . ut prius. 

23 Johan. Villars, mil. . . ut prius. 

24 Joh. Harrington , . . ut prius. 

25 Johan. Audley, arm. 

26 Regin. Digby, arm. . . ut prius. 

27 W. Broughton, arm. 

28 Walt. Smith, arm. 

29 Johan. Villars, mil. . . ut prius. 

30 Tho. Nevill, arm. 

G. a saltire Erm. 

31 Johan. Digby, arm. . . ut prius. 

32 Rich. Catesby, arm. 

Arg. two lions passant S. couronne O, 

33 Rog. Wigston, arm. . . Wolston, W. 

34 Fulco Grevil, mil. . . Beachamp, W. 

S. a border and cross engrailed O. thereon five pellets. 

35 G. Throgmorton . . . ut prius. 

36 Regin. Digby, arm. . . ut prius. 

37 Rich. Catesby, mil. . . ut prius. 

38 Fran. Poultney, et . . ut prius. 
Will. Leigh, arm. . . ut prius. 

G. a cross engrailed Arg. ; in the first quarter a lozenge O. 

EDWARD VI. 

1 Fulco Grevill, mil. . . ut prius. 

2 Ambros. Cave, mil. 

Az. frettee Arg. 

3 Rich. Munnar, mil. 

4 Edw. Hastings, mil. . ut prius. 



252 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

5 W. Wigesten, arm. . . ut prius. 

6 Tho. Nevill, mil. . . . ut prius. 

PHIL, et MAR. 

1 R. Throgmorton . . . ut prius,. 

2 Tho. Hastings, mil. . . ut prius. 

3 Edw. Grevill, mil. . . ut prius. 

4 Fran. Shirley, arm. . . ut prius. 

5 W. Wigeston, mil. . . ut prius. 

6 Bran. Cave, arm. . . ut prius. 

ELIZ. REG. 

1 Tho. Lucy, arm. . . . ut prius. 

2 Will. Skeffington . . tit prius. 

3 Tho. Nevill, mil. . . . ut prius. 

4 Rich. Verney, mil. . . ut prius. 

5 Johan. Fisher, arm. . . Pakington. 

Per bend G. and O. a griffin rampant counterchanged 
within a border vairy. 

6 Williel. Devereux. 

Arg. a fess G. ; in chief three torteaux. 

7 Geor. Turpin, mil. . . ut prius. 

8 Fran. Smith, arm. . . Ashby, L. 

Arg. a cross G. betwixt four peacocks proper. 
The reader may perceive some (not considerable) difference 
betwixt this our catalogue and the printed one set forth by Mr. 
Burton in his description of this shire. I will neither condemn 
his, nor commend my own ; but leave both to the examination 
of others. 

RICHARD II. 

16. THOMAS de WOODFORD. He was the eldest son of Sir 
Robert de Woodford, a wealthy knight, who, dying before his 
father, left five sons, viz. John, Walter, Humphrey, Ralph, and 
John. Sir Robert their grandfather, out of design to perpetuate 
his posterity (adventured in five bottoms) made all his grand 
children in effect elder brothers, dividing his vast estate amongst 
them ; an equal unequal partition, to be injurious to the heir 
(without his demerit), that he might be bountiful to his other 
brethren: but it thrived accordingly. For that great family 
(which had long continued in great account and estate), by 
reason of this division, in short space utterly decayed ; not any 
part of their lands (thus disposed) now in the tenure of the 
name, and some of the male heirs descended from the five bre 
thren now living in a low condition ;* and no wonder they soon 
made a hand of all, where the thumb was weakened to 
strengthen the four fingers. 

Burton, in his Description of Leicestershire, p. 264. 



SHERIFFS. 253 



HENRY V. 

3. THOMAS BURDET, Mil. The sameness of name and 
nearness of kindred giveth me here a just occasion to insist on 
a memorable passage concerning Thomas Burdet, esquire, 
grandchild and heir to Sir Thomas here named. When as king 
Edward the Fourth (in his absence) had killed a fat white buck 
in his park at Arrow in Warwickshire, which he greatly es 
teemed ; upon the first hearing of it, wished the buck s head and 
horns in his belly that moved the king to kill it. . Upon the 
misconstruing of which words, he was accused of treason ; at 
tainted, and beheaded, 18 Edward IV. 1477 5 and was buried in 
the Grey Friers in London. 

Thus far our English Chronicles with joint consent agree in 
the same tune ; but I meet with one author, reaching one note 
higher than all the rest, adding as followeth : " These words 
spoken and so wrested were the colour of his death ; but the 
true cause was the hard conceit and opinion which the king had 
of him, for that he had ever been a faithful friend and true coun 
cillor to George duke of Clarence his brother, between whom 
there had been bitter enmity.* 

Whatsoever was the cause of such severity against him, Bur 
det patiently and cheerfully took his death, affirming he had a 
bird in his breast (his own innocency) that sung comfort unto 
him. 

HENRY VI. 

2. HUMPHREY STAFFORD. Being afterwards knighted, he 
was by king Henry the Sixth made governor of Calais; and 
coming over into England, was slain by Jack Cade : but God 
hath a blessing for those whom rebels curse. Sir Humphrey 
Stafford, his grandchild, fixed himself at Blatherwick in North 
amptonshire, where his posterity doth nourish to this day. 

34. WILLIAM HASTINGS. The reader needeth not my 
dim candle to direct him to this illustrious person. He was 
son to Sir Leonard Hastings (sheriff two years before) ; and was 
he whom king Edward the Fourth, or rather Edward Plantage- 
net (because more in his humane than royal capacity) so de 
lighted in, that he made him his lord chamberlain, Baron Hast 
ings of Ashby de la Zouch, &c. As he loved the king very 
well, so after this king s death he is charged to have loved Jane 
Shore too well ; and Richard Duke of Gloucester, perceiving him 
to obstruct the way to his ambitions designs, ordered his re 
moval, causing him to be beheaded, 1 Edward V. As when 
living he was dear, so being dead his corpse lies near to Edward 
IV. ; buried under a very fair monument in Windsor Chapel. 
He was grandfather to George Hastings, first earl of Hunting 
don. 

* Burton, in the Description of Leicestershire p. 201. 



254 WORTHIES OP LEICESTERSHIRE. 



EDWARD VI. 

4. EDWARD HASTINGS, Mil. Queen Mary, much delighting 
in his devotion, created him baron of Loughborough. He 
founded and endowed a handsome hospital at Stoke Pogeis in 
Buckinghamshire, whither (after the queen s death), weary of 
the world, he retired himself, and therein died without issue. 

The foresaid (and that a very fair) town of Loughborough 
hath since again afforded the title of a baron to a younger 
branch of the same honourable family, Henry Hastings, second 
son to Henry (second of that Christian name) earl of Hunting 
don, who by his virtues doth add to the dignity of his extrac 
tion.* 

QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

5. JOHN FISHER, Arm. His father Thomas Fisher, alias 
Hawkins, being a colonel under the duke of Somerset in Mus- 
selborough Field, behaved himself right valiantly, and took a 
Scotchman prisoner, who gave a griffin for his arms. Where 
upon the said duke conferred on him the arms of his captive, to 
be borne within a border vairy, in relation to a prime coat 
which the said duke (the granter thereof) quartered as descended 
from the Lord Beauchamps of Hatch.f 

SHERIFFS OF LEICESTERSHIRE ALONE. 

ELIZ. REG. 

Anno Name and Arms. Place. 

9 Geo. Sherard, arm. , . Stapleford. 

Arg. a chevron G. betwixt three torteaux. 

10 Hen. Poole, arm. 

11 Brian. Cave, arm. 

Az. frettee Arg. 

12 Jac. Harington, mil. . Pekleton. 

S. a fret Arg. 

13 Geo. Hastings, mil. 

Arg. a maunche S. 

14 Fr. Hastings, arm. 

The same, with due difference. 

1 5 Edw. Leigh, arm. 

G. a cross engrailed Arg. ; in the first quarter a lozenge O. 

16 Geor. Turpin, mil. . . Knaptoft. 

G. on a bend Arg. three lions heads erased S. 

17 Rog. Villers, arm. 

Arg. on a cross G. five escalops O. 



The Title having again become extinct, was revived in 1780, in the person of 
Alexander Wedderburne, Esq. an eminent Lawyer, afterwards Lord High Chan 
cellor of Great Britain, and in 1801 elevated to the earldom of Rosslyn. ED. 

| Mr. Dugdale, in the Description of Warwick shire, p. 365. 



SHERIFFS. 



255 



Anno Name. Place. 

18 Tho. Skevington . . . Skevington. 

Arg. three bulls heads erased S. 

19 Nic. Beaumont, arm. . Cole-Orton. 

Az. seme de flower-de-luces, a lion rampant O. 

20 Tho. Ashby, arm. 

A chevron Erm. betwixt three leopards heads. 

21 Tho. Cave, arm. . . . ut prius. 

22 Fran. Hastings, arm. . ut prius. 

23 Geor. Purefey, arm. . . Dray ton. 

24 Brian Cave, arm. . . . Ingersby. 

Arms, ut prius, with due difference. 

25 Andr. Noell, arm. . . Dalby. 

O. fretty G. ; a canton Erin. 

26 Hen. Turvile, arm. . . Aston. 

G. three chevrons vairy. 

27 Will. Turpin, arm. . .* ut prius. 

28 Anth. Faunt, arm. . . Foston. 

Arg. crusule fitche, a lion rampant G. with due difference. 

29 Will. Cave, arm. . . . Pickwell. 

30 Tho. Skeffmgton . . . ut prius. 

Belgrave .... Belgrave. 
G. a chevron Erm. betwixt three mascles A. 

31 Edw. Turvile, arm. . . Thurlston. 

Arms, ut prius, with due difference. 



32 Geor. Purefey, arm. 

33 Geor. Villers, arm. . 

Arms, ut prius. 

34 Thorn. Cave, arm. 

35 Will. Turpin, arm. . 

36 Hen. Beaumont . . 

37 Williel. Cave, arm. . 

38 Henri. Cave, arn>. 

39 Will. Skipwith, arm. 



ut prius. 
Brokesby. 



. ut prius. 
. ut prius. 
. ut prius. 
. ut prius. 
. ut prius. 

Cores, 
in chief a g 

Welby. 



cursant S. 



40 Will. Digby, arm. 

Az. a fleur-de-lis Arg. 

41 T. Skeffmgton, arm. . ut prius. 

42 Rog. Smith, arm. . . Withcock. 

G. on a chevron O. between three bezants three croslets 
formee fitchee. 

43 Georg. Ashby, arm. . . Queenby. 

Tho. Humfreys . . . Swepston. 

JAC. REX. 

1 Will. Faunt, mil. . . Fauston. 

Arms, ut prius. 

2 Will. Noell, arm. . . Wellsborough. 

Arms, ut prius. 



256 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

3 Basil. Brook, mil. . . Lubbenham. 

4 Tho. Nevill, mil. . . . Holt. 

G. a saltire Erin. 

5 Hen. Hastings, mil. . . LEICESTER. 

Arms, ut prius. 

6 Will. Villers, arm. . . Brokesby. 

7 Job. Plummer, arm. . Marston. 

Erm. a bend vairy, cotised S. 

8 T. Beaumont, mil. . . Cole-Orton. 

9 Brian Cave, mil. . . . Ingersby. 

10 Tho. Hasilrig, mil. . . Nowsley. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three hazel-leaves V. 

11 Tho. Staveley, arm. 

Barry of eight Arg. and G. ; over all a flower-de-luce S. 

12 Wolstan. Dixy, mil. . Bosworth. 

Az. a lion rampant and chief 0. 

13 Will. Faunt, mil. , . ut prius, 

14 W. Halford, mil. . . Welham. 

15 Edw. Hartopp, arm. . Buckminster. 

S. a chevron betwixt three otters Arg. 

16 W. Jerveis, arm. . . . Peatling. 
Wil. Roberts, mil. . . Sutton. 

Per pale Arg. and G. a lion rampant S. 

17 Johan. Cave, arm. . . Pickwell. 

18 Alex. Cave, mil. . . . Bagrave. 

19 Richard. Halford . . Wistowe. 

20 Geo. Bennet, arm. 

21 Johan. Bale, mil. . . Carleton-Curley. 

Per pale V. and G. an eagle displayed Arg. beaked and 
armed O. 

22 Hen. Shirley, mil. . . Stanton. 

Paly of six O. and Az. ; a canton Erm. 

CAR. REX. 

1 Hartopp, mil ut prius. 

2 Nathan. Lacy, arm. 

3 Georg. Ashby, arm. 

4 Er. de la Fontaine, mil. 

G. a bend O. ; in the sinister chief a cinquefoil Erm. 

5 W. Wollaston, arm. 

S. three mullets pierced Arg. 

6 Joh. Bainbrigge, arm. . Lockinton. 

Arg. a chevron embattled betwixt three battle-axes S. 

7 Johann. Brokesby . . ut prius. 

8 Joh. St. John, mil. 

Arg. on a chief G. two mullets O. 

9 Tho. Burton, bart. . . Stockerston. 

S, a chevron between three owls Arg. crowned O. 



SHERIFFS. 



257 



10 Fran. Sanders, arm. 

Partie per chevron Arg. and S. three elephants heads 
counterchanged. 

11 Joh. Poultney, arm. . . Misterton. 

Arg. a fess indented G. ; three leopards heads in chief S. 

12 Hen. Skipwithy mil. . ut prius. 

13 Rich. Roberts, mil. 

14 Joh. Whatton, arm. 

15 Will. Halford, arm. 

16 Johan. Pate, arm. 

17 Archdale Palmer, arm. 

18 Henry Hastings. 

19 Peter Temple. 

20 Arthur Staveley. 

21 Johan. Stafford, arm. 

22 Will. Hewett, arm. 

S. a chevron counterbattellee betwixt three owls Arg. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

14. FRANCIS HASTINGS. I believe him the same person 
with Sir Francis Hastings, fourth son of Francis, second earl of 
Huntingdon of that surname, to whose many children Mr. Cam- 
den giveth this commendation, " that they agreed together in 
brotherly love, though not in religion ; "* some Protestants, others 
Papists, all zealous in their persuasion. Our Sir Francis wrote 
a learned book in the defence of our religion (rather carped at 
than confuted by Parsons in his " Three Conversions") ; and 
was an eminent benefactor to Emanuel College. But, if I 
be mistaken in the man, and these prove two different per 
sons, the reader will excuse me for taking occasion, by this 
his namesake and near kinsman, of entering here the memorial 
of so worthy a gentleman. 

28. ANTHONY FAUNT, Esquire. He was a gentleman of 
a comely person and great valour (son unto William Faunt, 
apprentice of the law of the Inner Temple, one of great 
learning and wisdom) ; and had in the Low Countries served 
under William prince of Orange, where he gained much mar 
tial experience. Returning into his country, he underwent 
some offices therein with good esteem, being this year chosen 
sheriff of the shire. In the next year (which was 1588) 
he was chosen lieutenant-general of all the forces of this shire, 
to resist the Spanish invasion. But his election being crossed 
by Henry earl of Huntingdon (lord lieutenant of the county) 
he fell into so deep a fit of melancholy, that he died soon 
after.f 

In his Elizabeth, anno 1560. f Burton, in Leicestershire, p. 105. 

VOL. II. S 



258 WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE, 

39. WILLIAM SKIPWITH, Esq. He was afterwards de 
servedly knighted, being a person of much valour, judgment., 
learning, and wisdom, dexterous at the making fit and acute 
epigrams, poesies, mottoes, and devices, but chiefly at impresses, 
neither so apparent that every rustic might understand them, 
nor so obscure that they needed an (Edipus to interpret them.* 

THE FAREWELL. 

Being now to take my leave of this county, it is needless to 
wish it a Friday market (the Leap-day therein, and it is strange 
there should be none in so spacious a shire), presuming that 
defect supplied in the vicinage. Rather I wish that the leprosy 
may never return into this county ; but if it should return (we 
carry the seeds of all sins in our souls, sicknesses in our 
bodies,) I desire that the lands may also (without prejudice 
to any) return to the hospital of Burton Lazars in this shire, 
if not entire, yet in such a proportion as may comfortably 
maintain the lepers therein. 



WORTHIES OF LEICESTERSHIRE WHO HAVE FLOURISHED SINCE 

THE TIME OF FULLER. 

Dr. John AIKIN, surgeon and miscellaneous author; born at 
Kibworth 1747; died 1822. 

William BEVERIDGE, bishop of St. Asaph, orientalist, and 
voluminous writer on theological and philological subjects ; 
born at Barrow-upon-Soar 1638 ; died 1708. 

F. BROKESBY, nonjuring divine, biographer of Dodwell; born 
at Stoke; died 1718. 

William CAVE, son of John Cave, writer and preacher, author 
of " Historia Literaria;" born at Pickwell 1637 ; died 1713. 

William CHESELDEN, anatomist and lithotomist, and profes 
sional author; born at Burrow-on-the-Hill 1688; died 1752. 

Roger COTES, mathematician and astronomer, a friend of Sir 
Isaac Newton; born at Burbach 1682; died 1716. 

Joseph CRADOCK, miscellaneous- writer, and author of " Me 
moirs;" born at Leicester 1741-2 ; died 1826. 

Luke CRANWELL, nonconformist divine and author ; born at 
Loughborough ; died 1683. 

Richard DAWES, author of "Miscellanea Critica;" born at 
Stapleton 1708; died 1766. 

Dr. Richard FARMER, divine, elegant scholar, author on the 
Learning of Shakspeare; born at Leicester 1735 ; died 1797. 

* Burton, in Leicestershire, p. 77. 



WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 259 

George Fox, founder of Quakerism ; born at Fenny Drayton 

1624; died 1690. 
Robert HALL, A.M. orator and dissenting divine; born at 

Arnsby ; died 1831. 

Ralph HEATHCOTE, divine, projector of the General Biogra 
phical Dictionary; born at Barrow-upon-Soar 1721 ; died 

1795. 
John HENLEY, " Orator Henley," eccentric divine ; born at 

Melton Mowbray 1692; died 1756. 

John HOWE, nonconformist divine and author ; born at Lough- 
borough 1630; died 1705. 

Elizabeth JERVIS, wife of Dr. Samuel Johnson; born at Peat- 
ling; died 1753. 
Dr. David JENNINGS, learned dissenting divine and author; 

bom at Kibworth 1691 ; died 1762. 
Daniel LAMBERT, weighed, at his death in 1809, 739lbs. ; 

born at Leicester 1770. 
William LILLY, astrologer, the " Sydrophel " of Butler s Hu- 

dibras; born at Diseworth 1602; died 1681. 
Sir John MOORE, founder of Appleby School, lord mayor of 

London in 1681 ; born at Applel)y. 
Christopher PACKE, lord mayor of London, republican ; born 

at Prestwould ; died 1682. 
David PAPILLON, author on Fortification; born at Papillon 

Hall in Lubbenham. 
Ambrose PHILLIPS, pastoral poet and dramatist; born 1671; 

died 1 749. 
Dr. Richard PULTENEY, eminent physician, conchologist, and 

botanist; born at Loughborough 1730; died 1801. 
William SHERARD, founder of botanical lecture at Oxford; 

born at Busbby 1659; died 1728. 
John SIMPSON, dissenter, biblical critic ; born at Leicester 

1746. 
Thomas STAVE LEY, lawyer, author of " History of Churches ; 

born at East Langton"l626 ; died 1683. 
Styan THIRLBY, critic, editor of Justin Martyr ; born at 

Leicester 1692; died 1753. 
John THROSBY, parish clerk, tourist of Leicestershire, and 

historian of his native town; born at Leicester 1746; died 

1803. 
William WHISTON, learned and ingenious but variable divine, 

and clever mathematician ; born at Norton-juxta-Twycross 

1667; died 1752. 
Hugh WORTHINGTON, eloquent dissenting divine ; born at 

Leicester 1752. 
Sir Nathan WRIGHTE, lord keeper; born at Barwell; died 

1721. 



s 2 



n 



260 WORKS RELATIVE TO LEICESTERSHIRE. 

%* This county has been fertile in historians. So early as 1622 Mr. Wm. Bur 
ton published a Description of Leicestershire; in 1777 Mr. J. Throsby brought out 
the Memoirs of the Town and County ; and so late as 1831, a Topographical His 
tory of the County was published in one vol. 8vo. by the Rev. J. Curtis. There 
have also appeared various publications of a local nature ; as Throsby s Views 
(1790); Macaulay s History of Claybrook (1791); Harrod s History of Market 
Harborough (1808) ; Hanbury s Account of Church Langton ; Rouse s Account of 
the Charities at Market Harborough ; Histories of Aston Flamvill, Burbach, 
Hinckley, &c. But the most extended history of this or of any other county, was 
produced by Mr. John Nichols, in four thick imperial volumes. It is a concentra 
tion (as he himself observes) of all that had been previously published ; with the 
addition of private documents, communications, memoirs, monumental inscriptions, 
family anecdotes, pedgrees, &c. ; in short of every thing (important or non-impor 
tant) which was calculated to feed the vanity of subscribers, or gratify the family 
pride of personal friends. While the motto, assumed for his family arms, " Labor 
ipse voluptas," was here truly realized, he entirely lost sight of the valuable adage 
of the Roman poet, " Brevis esse laboro, so admirably displayed in the works 
of that great exemplar of topography, Dr. Whittaker. 



LINCOLNSHIRE. 



THIS county, in fashion, is like a bended bow, the sea making 
the back, the rivers Welland and Humber the two horns thereof, 
whilst Trent hangeth down from the latter like a broken string, 
as being somewhat of the shortest. Such persecute the meta 
phor too much, who compare the river Witham (whose current 
is crooked) unto the arrow crossing the middle thereof. 

It extendeth 60 miles from south to north, not above 40 in 
the middle and broadest part thereof. Being too voluminous 
to be managed entire, it is divided into three parts, each of them 
co-rival in quantity with some smaller shires ; Holland on the 
south-east, Kesteven on the south-west, and Lindsey on the 
north to them both. 

Holland (that is Hoyland, or Hayland, from the plenty of hay 
growing therein), may seem the reflection of the opposite Hol 
land in the Netherlands, with which it sympathized in the fruit- 
fulness,and low and wet situation. Here the brackishness of the 
water, and the grossness of the air, is recompensed by the good 
ness of the earth, abounding with dairies and pasture. And as 
" God hath " (to use the Apostle s phrase) " tempered the body 
together,"* not making it all eye or all ear (nonsense that the 
whole should be but one sense), but assigning each member the 
proper office thereof ; so the same Providence hath so wisely 
blended the benefits of this county, that take collectively Lin 
colnshire, and it is defective in nothing. 

NATURAL COMMODITIES. 

PIKES. 

They are found plentifully in this shire, being the fresh-water 
wolves ; and therefore an old pond pike is a dish of more state 
than profit to the owners, seeing a pike s belly is a little fish 
pond, where lesser of all sorts have been contained. Sir Francis 
Bacon t alloweth it (though tyrants generally be short-lived) 
the survivor of all fresh-water fish, attaining to forty years, and 
some beyond the seas have trebled that term. The flesh thereof 
must needs be fine and wholesome, if it be true what is affirmed, 

* l Cor. xii. 24. f In his History of Life and Death. 



262 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

that in some sort it cheweth the cud; and yet the less and 
middle size pikes * are preferred for sweetness before those that 
are greater. It breedeth but once f (whilst other fishes do 
often) in a year; such the providence of nature, preventing 
their more multiplying, lest the waters should not afford sub 
jects enough for their tyranny. For want of other fish, they 
will feed one on another ; yea, what is four-footed shall be fish 
with them, if it once come to their jaws (biting sometimes for 
cruelty and revenge, as well as for hunger) ; and because we 
have publicly professed, that to delight as well as to inform is 
our aim in this book, let the ensuing story (though unwarranted 
with a cited author) find the reader s acceptance. 

A cub fox, drinking out of the river Arnus in Italy, had his 
head seized on by a mighty pike, so that neither could free 
themselves, but were engrappled together. In this contest a 
young man runs into the water, takes them out both alive, and 
carrieth them to the duke of Florence, whose palace was hard 
by. The porter would not admit him, without promising to 
share his full half in what the duke should give him ; to which 
he (hopeless otherwise of entrance) condescended. The duke, 
highly affected with the rarity, was about giving him a good re 
ward ; which the other refused,desiring hisHighness would appoint 
one of his guard to give him a hundred lashes, that so his porter 
might have fifty, according to his composition. And here my 
intelligence leaveth me how much farther the jest was followed. 

But to return to our English pikes, wherein this county is 
eminent, especially in that river which runneth by Lincoln, 
whence grew this proverb, 

" Witham pike 

England hath none like." 

And hence it is that Mr. Drayton { maketh this river, poetis 
ing in her praises, always concluding them, 

Thus to her proper song the burden still she bare : 
Yet for my dainty pikes I am without compare." 

I have done with these pikes, when I have observed (if I 
mistake not) a great mistake in Mr. Stowe, affirming that pick- 
rels were brought over (as no natives of our land) into England 
at the same time with carps, and both about the beginning of 
the reign of king Henry the Eighth. Now if pickrels be the 
diminutives of pikes (as jacks of pickrels), which none, I con 
ceive, will deny, they were here many hundred years since, and 
probably of the same seniority with the rivers of England ; for 
I find, in the bill of fare made at the prodigious feast at the in 
stalling of George Nevil archbishop of York, anno 1466, that 
there were spent three hundred lupi fluviatiles, that is, river pikes, 
at that entertainment || Now, seeing all are children before 

* Mr. Walton, in his Complete Angler, p. 197. f Idem, p. 199. 

J Polyolbion, 25th Part, 111. In his Chronicle, p. 948. 

II Bishop Godwin in his Catalogue of the Bishops of York. 



s 



NATURAL COMMODITIES. 263 



they are men, and pikes pickrels at the first, pickrels were more 
anciently in England than that author affirmeth them. 

WILD FOWL. 

Lincolnshire may be termed the aviary of England, for the 
wild fowl therein; remarkable for their, 1. Plenty; so that some 
times, in the month of August, three thousand mallards, with 
birds of that kind, have been caught at one draught, so large 
and strong their nets ; and the like must be the reader s belief. 
2. Variety ; no man (no not Gesmar himself) being able to give 
them their proper names, except one had gotten Adam s nomen 
clature of creatures. 3. Deliciousness ; wild fowl being more 
dainty and digestible than tame of the same kind, as spending their 
gross humour with their activity and constant motion in flying. 

Now as the eagle is called Jovis ales, so here they have a bird 
which is called the king s bird, namely, Knufs, sent for hither out 
of Denmark, at the charge, and for the use, of Knut, or Canutus, 
king of England. If the plenty of birds have since been drained 
with the fens in this county, what Lincolnshire lacks in her 
former fowl, is supplied in flesh (more mutton and beef ) ; and 
a large first makes amends for a less second course. But 
amongst all birds we must not forget 

DOTTERELS. 

This is avis yeXoroTrotoe, a mirth-making bird, so ridiculously 
mimical, that he is easily caught (or rather catcheth himself) by 
his over-active imitation. There is a sort of apes in India, 
caught by the natives thereof after this manner : they dress a 
little boy in his sight, undress him again, leave all the child s 
apparel behind them in the place, and then depart a competent 
distance. The ape presently attireth himself in the same gar 
ments, till the child s clothes become his chains, putting off his 
feet by putting on his shoes, not able to run to any purpose, 
and so is soon taken. 

The same humour, otherwise pursued, betrayeth the dot 
terels. As the fowler stretcheth forth his arms and legs going 
towards the bird, the bird extendeth his legs and wings ap 
proaching the fowler, till surprised in the net. But it is 
observed, that the foolisher the fowl or fish (woodcocks, dot 
terels, codsheads, &c.) the finer the flesh thereof. 

FEATHERS. 

It is pity to part Lancashire ticking (lately spoken of) and 
Lincolnshire feathers, making so good beds together. I cannot 
find the first beginning of feather-beds. The Latin word 
pulvinar for a cushion, pillow, or bolster, sheweth, that the 
entrails of such utensils amongst the Romans were made but of 
dust ; and our English plain proverb, " de puerperis," (they are 
in the straw), shows feather-beds to be of no ancient use 



264 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

amongst the common sort of our nation ; and beds of down 
(the cream of feathers) are more modern than they. The fea 
thers of this county are very good (though not so soft as such 
as are imported from Bordeaux in France) ; and although a 
feather passeth for the emblem of lightness itself, they are heavy 
enough in their prices to such as buy any quantity ; and daily 
grow dearer. 

PIPPINS. 

With these we will close the stomach of* the reader, being 
concluded most cordial by physicians. Some conceive them to 
be of not above a hundred years seniority in England : how 
ever, they thrive best, and prove biggest (not Kentish excepted) 
in this county, particularly in Holland, and about Kirton 
therein, whence they have acquired addition of Kirton pippins, 
a wholesome and delicious apple ; and I am informed that pip 
pins graffed on a pippin stock are called renates, bettered in 
their generous nature by such double extraction. 

FLEET HOUNDS. 

In Latin called petronii, or petrunculi, from petra a rock, 
either because their feet are sound and solid (and therefore 
named Euvro^ec by Xenophon), or from the hard and rocky 
ground whereon they were accustomed to hunt. These, with 
much certainty of scent and quickness of feet, will run down a 
hare in a short time. 

Janus Ulitius, a Dutchman, some fifteen years since came 
into England ; and, though a man of the gown (employed in 
public affairs), for diversion he went down into this county, to 
spend one winter ; where, conversing with some young gen 
tlemen, he hunted twice a week with so great content, that the 
season (otherwise unpleasant) was past before he perceived how 
it went. Hear him expressing himself : " Sed et petrunculi illi, 
qui vestigiis eorum non minus celeriter quam sagaciter instant, 
haud facile trihorio minus leporem aliquem defatigant, ut in 
Lincolniensi montium scquijugi tractu aliquoties ipse vidi." 
And yet I assure you, the hares in this county on Ancaster 
Heath do (though lesser) far exceed in swiftness and subtilty of 
doubling those of the valleys and plains. 

Such apetronius, or fleet hound, is two hounds in effect. 

Sed premit inventns, non inventura latentes. 
Ilia /eras, yu.ee petroniis bene gloria cunstcil. 

1 To the petronian, both the praise is due, 
Quickly to find, and nimbly to pursue." 

GREYHOUNDS. 

In Latin termed veltrag a, or vertrugus, or vertagus, derived, 
it seems, from the Dutch word velt a field, and rack, or brack, 
a dog. And of how high esteem the former, and these, were 
amongst the ancients, the reader may infer from the old Bur- 



NATURAL COMMODITIES. 265 

gundian law : " Siquis canem veltraum, aut segutium, vel pe- 
trunculum prsesumpserit involare, juberaus ut convictus coram 
omni populo posteriora ipsius osculetur." 

Martial, speaking of these greyhounds, thus expresseth him 
self: 

.Mm sibi sed domino venatur vertragus acer ; 
Illcesum leporem qui tibi denteferet. 

" For s master, not himself, doth greyhound toil, 
Whose teeth to thee return the unhurt spoil." 

I have no more to observe of these greyhounds, save that 
they are so called (being otherwise of all colours) because 
originally employed in the hunting of grays ; that is, brocks 
and badgers. 

MASTIFFS. 

Known to the Romans by the name of molossi, from Molos- 
sia a county in Epirus, whence the fiercest in that kind were 
fetched at first, before better were brought out of Britain. 

Gratius, an ancient poet, contemporary with Virgil, writing 
his Cynegeticon, or poem of hunting, giveth great praise to 
our English mastiffs, highly commending their valour; only 
taxing them that they are not handsomely made : 

HCEC una est catulisjnctura Brilannis. 

" The British whelps no hlemish know, 
But that they are not shap d for show. " 

Which thing is nothing in my mind, seeing beauty is no whit 
material to a soldier. 

This county breedeth choice mastiffs for the bull and bear ; 
and the sport is much affected therein, especially about Stam 
ford, whereof hereafter. What remaineth concerning mastiffs 
is referred to the same topic in Somersetshire. 

Thus the three kinds of ancient hunting, which distinctly 
require fleetness, scent, and strength, are completely performed 
in this county, by a breed therein, which are answerably quali 
fied. This I have inserted, because as to my native country in 
general, so to this in particular, I would not willingly do less 
right than what a stranger hath done thereunto. 

Before we come to catalogue the WORTHIES of this county,* 
it is observable, that as it equalled other shires in all ages, so it 
went beyond itself in one generation, viz. in the reign of queen 
Elizabeth, when it had natives thereof, 1 . Edward Clinton, lord 
admiral; 2. William Cecil, lord treasurer; 3. Sir Edmund An 
derson, lord chief justice ; 4. John Whitgift, archbishop of 
Canterbury; 5. Peregrine Bartu, lord general in France; 6. 
Thomas Wilson, doctor of law, and secretary of state : all 
countrymen and contemporaries.f Thus sea and land, church 

Reader, pardon this true but (abortive) notation casually come in before the 

due time thereof F. 

t Here I mention not Sir Thomas Heneage, at the same time a grand favourite, 
and privy councillor to queen Elizabeth. _F. 



266 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE, 

and camp, sword and mace, gospel and law, were stored 
with prime officers out of this county. Nor must it be for 
gotten, though born in the same shire, they were utterly 
unrelated in kindred, and raised themselves independently (as 
to any mutual assistance) by God s blessing, the queen s favour, 
and their own deserts. 

THE BUILDINGS. 

Here the complaint of the prophet taketh no place, taxing 
men to live " in ceiled palaces, whilst the temple of God lay 
waste/ * no county affording worse houses, or better churches. 
It addeth to the wonder, that seeing in this soft county a dia 
mond is as soon found as a flint, their churches are built of 
polished stones j no natives, but naturalized by importation from 
foreign parts. 

I hope the inhabitants of this shire will endeavour to disprove 
the old proverb, " the nearer to the church the further from God ;" 
because they have substituted a better in the room thereof ; viz. 
" the further from stone, the better the churches." 

As for the cathedral of Lincoln, whose floor is higher than the 
roof of many churches, it is a magnificent structure, proportion 
able to the amplitude of the diocese. This I dare boldly say, 
that no diocese in Christendom affordeth two such rivers 
Thames and Trent ; for the southern and northern bounds ; and 
two such universities, Cambridge and Oxford, both in the con 
tent thereof, before three small bishoprics,t were carved out 
of it. 

Amongst the houses of the nobility, I take signal notice of 
two. One I may call a premeditate building, viz. Tattershall (be 
longing to the Right Honourable the earl of Lincoln), advanced 
by degrees at several times to the modern magnificence thereof. 
But Grimsthorp I may term an extempore structure, set up on a 
sudden by Charles Brandon duke of Suffolk, to entertain king 
Henry the Eighth, in his progress into these parts. The hall 
therein was fitted to a fair suit of hanging, which the duke had 
by his wife Mary the French queen, and is now in the posses 
sion of the Right Honourable Montague Earl of Lindsey. 

THE WONDERS. 

AtFishtoft in this county, no mice or rats are found, insomuch 
that barns, built party per pale in this and the next parish, on 
one side are annoyed ; on the other side (being Fishtoft moiety) 
are secured from this vermin. Surely no piper (what is noto 
riously known of Hamel in Westphalia) did ever give them this 
mice-delivery by his music. 

It is easier to conjure up many than allay one difficulty ; 
other places in England affording the like. At one of the 
Rodings in Essex no hogs will root : in another common no mol 

* Haggai i. 4. f Ely, Peterborough, and Oxford. 



WONDERS PROVERBS. 267 

will cast. In Lindley in Leicestershire, no snakes are found.* 
I believe they overshoot the mark, who make it a miracle ; they 
undershoot it, who make it magic : they come the nearest to 
truth, who impute it to occult qualities. If some men will 
swoon at some meat, yea but smelling it unseen, by their dis 
affection thereunto, why may not whole species and kinds of 
creatures have some antipathetical places, though the reason 
thereof cannot be rendered ? Surely, as Samson at his marriage 
propounded a riddle to his companions to try their wits thereon ; 
so God offereth such enigmas in nature, partly that men may 
make use of their admiring as well as of their understanding ; 
partly that philosophers may be taught their distance betwixt 
themselves, who are but the lovers, and God, who is the giver 
wisdom. 

Let it also pass (for this once) for a wonder, that some seven- 
score years since, nigh Harlaxton in this shire, there was found 
(turned up by one ploughing the ground) a golden helmet of anti 
que fashion jf I say, " cassis non aurata, sed aurea," (a helmet not 
gilt, but of massive gold), studded with precious stones, proba 
bly of some prime Roman comn nder. Whence I observe, 
first, that though no edge tool to of may be made of gold 
and silver, yet defensive weapons i aereof be compounded. 
Secondly, that the poetical fiction o~ Glaucus s golden arms is 
founded on history; for (not to speak of Solomon s golden 
shields) great commanders made use of arms of that metal, if 
not for strength, for state and ornament. Lastly, it was pre 
sented to queen Katharine, first wife to king Henry the Eighth, 
who, though not knowing to use it as a helmet, knew how to 
employ it as made of gold and rich jewels. 

PROVERBS. 

" Lincolnshire bagpipes. "] 

I behold these as most ancient, because a very simple sort of 
music, being little more than the oaten pipe improved with a 
bag, wherein the imprisoned wind pleadeth melodiously for the 
enlargement thereof. It is incredible with what agility it in- 
spireth the heavy heels of the country clowns, overgrown with 
hair and rudeness, probably the ground-work of the poetical 
fiction of dancing satyrs. This bagpipe, in the judgment of the 
rural Midas s, carrieth away the credit from the harp of Apollo 
himself; and most persons approve the blunt bagpipe above 
the edge-tool instruments of drums and trumpets in our civil 
dissensions. 

" As loud as Tom of Lincoln."] 

This shire carries away the bell for round-ringing from all in 
England ; though other places may surpass it for changes, more 
pleasant for the variety thereof; seeing it may be demonstrated 

Burton, in his Description of Leicestershire, 
t Camden s Britannia, in this county. 



268 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

that twelve bells will afford more changes than there have been 
hours since the creation. Tom of Lincoln may be called the 
Stentor (fifty lesser bells may be made out of him) of all in this 
county. Expect not of me to enter into the discourse of Popish 
baptising and naming of bells, many charging it on them for 
a profane, and they confessing enough to make it a superstitious, 
action. 

" All the carts that come to Cowland are shod with silver. * ] 

Venice and Crowland, " sic canibus catulos," may count their 
carts alike ; that being sited in the sea (this in a morass and 
fenny ground), so that a horse can hardly come to it. But 
whether this place, since the draining of the fens, hath acquired 
more firmness than formerly is to me unknown. 

" Tis height makes Grantham steeple stand awry."*] 

This steeple seems crooked unto the beholders (and I believe 
will ever do so, until our age erect the like by it for height and 
workmanship), though some conceive the slenderness at such a 
distance is all the obliquity thereof. Eminency exposeth the 
uprightest persons to exception ; and such who cannot find faults 
in them, will find faults at them, envying their advancement. 

" As mad as the baiting bull of Stamford."] 

Take the original hereof. William earl Warren, lord of this 
town in the time of king John, standing upon the castle walls 
of Stamford, saw two bulls fighting for a cow in the meadow, till 
all the butchers dogs, great and small, pursued one of the bulls 
(being madded with noise and multitude) clean through the 
town. This sight so pleased the said earl, that he gave all those 
meadows f (called the Castle Meadows) where first the bull duel 
began, for a common to the butchers of the town (after the first 
grass was eaten), on condition that they find a mad bull, the day 
six weeks before Christmas day, for the continuance of that 
sport every year. Some think that the men must be mad as 
well as the bull, who can take delight in so dangerous a waste- 
time : whereby that no more mischief is done, not man s care 
but God s providence is to be praised. 

" He looks as the devil over Lincoln. "J] 

Lincoln Minster is one of the stateliest structures in Chris 
tendom. The south side of it meets the travellers thereunto 
twenty miles off, so that their eyes are there many hours before 
their feet. 

The devil is the map of malice, and his envy, as God s mercy, 
is over all his works. It grieves him whatever is given to God, 
crying out with that flesh devil, " Ut quid hsec perditio," (what 
needs this waste ?) On which account he is supposed to have 
overlooked this church, when first finished with a torve and tetric 
countenance, as maligning men s costly devotion, and that they 
should be so expensive in God s service. But it is suspicious that 

* Mr. John Cleiveland. t R. Butcher, in his Survey of Stamford, p. 40. 

J See the Proverbs in Oxfordshire. Matt. xxvi. 8. 



PROVERBS PRINCES. 269 

some who account themselves saints behold such fabrics with 
little better looks. 

, j " He was born at Little Wittham."*] 

This village in this county by orthography is Witham, near 
which a river of the same name doth rise. But such nominal 
proverbs take the advantage of all manner of spelling as due 
unto them. It is applied to such people as are not overstocked 
with acuteness. The best is, all men are bound to be honest, 
but not to be witty. 

" Grantham gruel, nine grits and a gallon of water."] 

Gruel (though homely) is wholesome spoon-meat physic for 
the sick, and food for persons in health. Water is the matter, 
grits the form thereof, giving the being thereunto. Now gruel 
thus imperfectly mixed is wash rather, which one will have lit 
tle heart to eat, and get as little heart thereby. The proverb is 
applicable to those who in their speeches or actions multiply 
what is superfluous, or (at best) less necessary ; either wholly 
omitting, or less regarding, the essentials thereof. 

" They held together as the men of Marhamf when they lost their common." ] 

Some understand it ironically; that is, they were divided 
with several factions, which proverb, " mutato nomine," is used 
in other counties. Yea, long since, Virgil said the same in ef 
fect of the men of Mantua, when they lost their lands to the 
soldiers of Augustus : 



En qiib discordia, cives, 



Perduxit miseros ! En queis consevimus agros /+ 

" See, townmen, what we by our jars are grown ; 
And see for whom we have our tillage sown !" 

Indeed, when a common danger calls for a union against a 
general enemy, for any then to prosecute their personal quarrels 
and private grudges, is a folly always observed, often reproved, 
sometimes confessed, but seldom reformed. 

Others use this proverb only as an expression of ill success, 
when men strive to no purpose, though plotting and practising 
together to the utmost of their power, being finally foiled in 
their undertakings. 

PRINCES. 

HENRY eldest [surviving] son of John of Gaunt duke of 
Lancaster, was born at the castle of Bollingbroke in this county, 
and bred (according to the discipline of those days) in camp and 
court, in both which he proved a good proficient. By nature 
he was made more to command than obey, being ambitious, 
choleric, and withal courageous, cunning to catch, careful to 
keep, and industrious to improve all advantages. 

Being nettled with some injuries received from king Richard 

* Heywood, in his Epigrams, cent. v. num. 19. 

Though this Proverb be frequent in this shire, Marham is in Norfolk F. 

t Eclogue the first. 



270 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

the Second, he complotted with a good party of the nobility to 
depose him. Miscarriages in his government (many by misma 
naging, more by the mis-succeeding of matters) exposed him to 
just exception, besides his own debauchery ; and how easily is 
a dissolute government dissolved ! 

Having, by the murder of king Richard, achieved the govern 
ment to himself, he reigned with much difficulty and opposition. 
Though his father was a great patron, he was a great persecutor 
of the Wickliffites ; though not so much out of hatred to them, 
as love to himself, thereby to be ingratiated with the clergy, 
then potent in the land. 

When duke, he wore on his head an antique hood, which he cast 
not off when king, so that his picture is generally known by 
the crown superadded thereon. Lying on his death-bed, he was 
rather querulous than penitent, much complaining of his suf 
ferings in keeping, nothing bewailing his sin in getting, the 
crown. Fire and faggot was first kindled in his reign in Eng 
land, to burn (pardon the prolepsis) poor Protestants ; and 
happy had it been, had they been quenched at his death, which 
happened anno Dom. 1413. 

This Henry was the only prince born in this county since the 
Conquest, though a good author by mistake entituleth this 
county to another, an ancienter Henry ; yet so that he giveth 
him with one hand to it in his Book of Maps, and takes him 
away with the other in his Chronicle. 

/. Speed (in his description of Lincolnshire, parag. 7-) 
" This shire triumpheth in the birth of Beauclerk king Henry 
the First, whom Selby brought forth." 

J. Speed (in his chronicle in the life of W. I. pag. 436.) 
" Henry fourth, and youngest son of king William, was born at 
Selby in Yorkshire." 

I believe Mr. Speed the chronicler before Mr. Speed the 
chorographer, because therein concurring with other authors. 
Besides, consult the alphabetical index of his Map, and there is 
no Selby in this shire. We have therefore placed king Henry 
the First in Yorkshire ; and thought fit to enter this observa 
tion, not to reprove others, but lest I be reproved myself. 

SAINTS. 

Here I make no mention of St. Botolph, because there is no 
constat (though very much probability) of his English Nativity, 
who lived at, and gave the name to, Botolph s town (corruptly 
Boston) in this county. 

GILBERT de SEMPRINGHAM, there born in this county, was 
of noble extraction, Joceline his father being a knight, to whom 
he was eldest son, and heir to a great estate.* In body he was 

Bale, tie Scriptoribus Britannicis, cent. Hi. n. 25. and Camden s Britannia, in 
Lincolnshire. 



SAINTS MARTYRS. 

very deformed, but of subtile wit and great courage. Travelling 
over into France, there he got good learning, and obtained leave 
from the Pope to be founder of those Epiceene and Hermaphro- 
dine convents, wherein monks and nuns lived together, as under 
one roof, but with partitions betwixt them. 

Sure it was to him a comfort and credit (which is confidently 
related by credible authors) to see 13 convents, 700 monks, 
1100 nuns (women out-superstition men) of his order, being 
aged one hundred and six years. He appointed the fair con 
vent at Sempringham (his own rich inheritance) to be mother 
and prime residence of his new-erected order. He died anno 
1189. 

HUGH was a child, born and living in Lincoln,* who by the 
impious Jews was stolen from his parents, and in derision of 
Christ and Christianity, to keep their cruel hands in use, by 
them crucified, being about nine years old. Thus he lost his 
life, but got a Saintship thereby ; and some afterwards per 
suaded themselves that they got their cures at his shrine in 
Lincoln. 

However, this made up the measure of the sins of the Jews 
in England, for which not long after they were ejected the land, 
or, which is the truer, unwillingly willing they departed them 
selves. And whilst they retain their old manners, may they 
never return, especially in this giddy and unsettled age, for fear 
more Christians fall sick of Judaism, than Jews recover in 
Christianity. This Hugh was martyred anno Dom. 1255, on 
the 27th of July. 

MARTYRS. 

ANNE ASKEWE, daughter of Sir William Askewe, knight, 
was born at Kelsey in this county. Of her piety and patience, 
when first wracked in the Tower, then burnt in Smithfield, I 
have largely treated in my " Church History." She went to 
Heaven in a chariot of fire, July 16, 1546. 

CARDINALS. 

[AMP.] ROBERT SOMMERCOT. There are two villages, 
North and South Sommercot, in this county (and to my notice, 
nowhere else in England) ; from one of which, I presume, he 
took his nativity in name. Yet because Bale affirmeth Lawrence 
Sommercot, his brother or kinsman, born in the South of Eng 
land, f we have affixed our note of dubitation. But out of doubt 
it is, he was a right learned man, to whom Matthew Paris gives 
this short but thick commendation ; " Vir fuit discretus, et circum- 
spectus, omnibus amabilis merito et gratiosus."J By Pope Gre 
gory the Ninth he was made Cardinal of St. Stephen s, anno 1231. 

Jo. Capg. in SS. Ang. Matth. Westm. et Paris, ann. 1255. 
t De Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iv. num. 2. J In anno 1241, pag. 576. 



272 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

He was a true lover of his countrymen, and could not abide 
to hear them abused ; the cause that his choler was twice raised, 
when the Pope said, in his presence, " that there was not a faith 
ful man in England;"* though wisely he repressed his passion. 

After this Pope Gregory s death, he was the foremost of the 
three Elects for the Papacy ; and, on fair play, the most proba 
ble person to carry the place ; but he was double barred : first, 
because an honest man as any in that age : secondly, because 
an Englishman : the Italians desiring to monopolize the choice 
to themselves. Hereupon, in the holy conclave (the better 
place the better deed) he was made away by poison, to make 
room for Celestine to succeed him, who sate that skittish place 
but a short time, dying seventeen days after our Sommercot s 
death, which happened anno Domini 1241. 

PRELATES. 

WILLIAM of GAINSBOROUGH was born in that fair market 
town, which performeth more to the eye, than fame hath report 
ed to the ear thereof, He was bred a Franciscan in Oxford, 
and became the twenty-fifth lecturer of his order. He was after 
wards sent over by king Edward the First, with Hugh of Man 
chester, to Philip king of France, to demand reparation for some 
damages in Aquitaine. 

He was a mighty champion of the Pope s infallibility : avow 
ing that what David indulged to his son Adonijah, never saying 
unto him, " why didst thou so ? "t ought to be rendered by all 
to his Holiness ; being not to be called to an account, though 
causing the damnation of thousands. 

I remember, when I was in Cambridge some thirty years 
since, there was a flying though false report, that Pope Urban 
the Eighth was cooped up by his cardinals in the castle of St. 
Angelo. Hereupon a waggish scholar said, " Jam verissimum 
est Papa non potest errare," " it was then true (according to 
their received intelligence) that the Pope could not straggle or 
wander." 

But our Gainsborough stoutly defended it in the literal sense 
against all opposers, for which his good service Pope Boniface 
the Eighth preferred him bishop of Worcester, where he sate 
6 years, and died 1308. 

WILLIAM AYRMIN was descended of an ancient family in 
this county, still extant in great eminency of estate at Osgodby 
therein. He was for some time keeper of the Seal and vice- 
chancellor to king Edward the Second ; at what time, anno 1319, 
the following misfortune befell him ; and take the original 
thereof out of an anonymal croniclering manuscript. 

"Episcopus Eborum, Episcopus Elie, thesaurarius, Abbas 

Bale, utprius, in anno 1240, pp. 524 and 542. f l Kings i. 6. 



PRELATES. 



273 



Beate Marie Eborum, Abbas de Selbie, Decanus Eborum, Do- 
minus Willielmus Arymanee vice-cancellarius Anglic, ac Domi- 
nus Johannes Dabeham, cum 8000 ferme hominum, tarn equi- 
tum quam peditum, et civibus, properanter civitatem egredi- 
entes, quoddam flumen Swale nuncupatum sparsis cuneis * tran- 
seuntes, et indispositis seu potius confusis ordinibus, cum adver- 
sariis congressi sunt. Scoti siquidem in Marte gnari amplitudi- 
nem eorum exercitus caute regentes, in nostris agminibus stric- 
tis audacter irruerunt ; nostrorum denique in brevi laceratis cu 
neis atque dissipatis, corruerunt ex iiostris, tarn in ore gladii 
quam aquarum scopulis suffocati, plusquam 4000 ; et capti sunt 
Domini Johannes de Papeham, et Dominus Willielmus de Ary 
manee, ut prefertur, de cancellaria," &c. 

(" The Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Ely, lord treasurer, 
the Abbot of St. Mary s in York, the Abbot of Selby, the Dean 
of York, Mr. William Ayrmane, vice chancellor, and Mr. John 
Dabehame, with almost 8000 men, as well horse as foot, and ci 
tizens, hastily going out of the city, passing over a certain river 
called Swale, with scattered parties,* and with disordered or ra 
ther confused ranks, encountered the enemy. The Scotch, cun 
ning in war, warily ruling the greatness of their army, boldly 
rushed on our men with well-ordered troops ; and afterwards in 
short time having broken, and scattered our parties, there fell 
of our men, with the mouth of the sword, and choked with the 
water, more than 4000 : and Mr. John de Papeham and Mr. 
William Arymane of the chancery, as aforesaid, were taken 
prisoners.") 

Afterwards recovering his liberty, he was made chancellor of 
England, and bishop of Norwich, in the 18th year of king Ed 
ward the Second. He gave two hundred pounds, to buy land, 
to maintain priests to say mass for his soul. He died anno 
Domini 1337, at Charing Cross nigh London, when he had 
been eleven years bishop. I am credibly informed, that he be 
stowed the manor of Silk Willoughby in this county on his 
family, which, with other fair lands, is possessed by them at this day. 

WILLIAM WAYNFLET was born at Waynflet in this county, 
whence he took his denomination, according to the custom of 
clergyman in that age : for otherwise he was eldest son to 
Richard Pattin, an ancient esquire in this county ; and I under 
stand that at this day they remain at Barsloe in Derbyshire, 
descended from the said knight. But of this worthy prelate, 
founder of Magdalen College in Oxford, abundantly in my 
"Church History." 

WILLIAM LYNWOOD was born at Lynwood in this county, f 
and proceeded Doctor of the Laws (probably rather by incorpo- 

" Fashioned in form of a wedge. F. f Harpsfield, in his History. 

VOL. II. T 



274 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

ration than constant education) in Oxford, long living a com 
moner in Gunvil Hall in Cambridge. He was chancellor to the 
archbishop of Canterbury, keeper of the Privy Seal to king 
Henry the Sixth, and was employed in several embassies into 
Spain and Portugal. He wrote a learned comment on the Eng 
lish provincial constitutions, from Stephen Langton to arch 
bishop Chichley : and his pains at last were rewarded with the 
bishopric of St. David s, where he died 1446. 

WILLIAM ASCOUGH was descended of a worshipful and very 
ancient family now living at Kelsey in this county, the variation 
of a letter importing nothing to the contrary. I have seen at 
Sarisbury his arms, with allusion to the arms of that house, and 
some episcopal addition. Such likeness is with me a better 
evidence than the sameness, knowing that the clergy in that age 
delighted to disguise their coats from their paternal bearing. 
He was bred Doctor of the Laws, a very able man in his pro 
fession ; became bishop of Sarum, confessor to king Henry the 
Sixth, and was the first (as T. Gascoigne relateth) of bishops who 
discharged that office, as then conceived, beneath the place. 
Some will say, if king Henry answered the character commonly 
received of his sanctity, his confessor had a very easy perform 
ance. Not so : for always the most conscientious are the most 
scrupulous in the confession of their sins, and the particular 
enumeration of the circumstances thereof. 

It happened that Jack Cade with his cursed crew (many of 
them being the tenants of this bishop) fell foul on this prelate 
at Edington in this shire. Bishop Godwin saith, " Illi quam ob 
causam infensi non habeo compertum ; " he could not tell " why 
they should be so incensed against him." But, I conceive, it 
was because he was learned, pious, and rich three capital crimes 
in a clergyman. They plundered his carriages, taking ten 
thousand marks (a mine of money in that age) from him ; and 
then, to secure their riot and felony, by murder and high-treason, 
dragged him as he was officiating from the high altar. And 
although they regarded difference of place no more than a wolf 
is concerned whether he killeth a lamb in the fold or field, yet 
they brought him out of the church to a hill hard by, and there 
barbarously murdered him, and tore his bloody shirt in pieces, 
and left his stripped body stark naked in the place : 

Sic concussa cadit pnpulari mitra tumultu, 
Protegat optamus mine diadema Dens. 

" By people s fury mitre thus cast down, 
We pray henceforward God preserve the crown." 

This his massacre happened June 29, 1450, when he had sate 
almost twelve years in the see of Salisbury. 

RICHARD Fox was born at Graiitham in this county, as the 
fellows of his foundation in Oxford have informed me. Such 
who make it their only argument to prove his birth at Grantham, 



PRELATES. 275 

because he therein erected a fair free-school, may on the same 
reason conclude him born at Taunton in Somersetshire, where 
he also founded a goodly Grammar school. But \vhat shall I 
say ? " Ubique nascitur qui orbi nascitur ;" he may be said to 
be born every where, who with Fox was born for the public and 
general good. 

He was very instrumental in bringing king Henry the 
Seventh to the crown, who afterwards well rewarded him for the 
same. That politic prince (though he could go alone as well as 
any king in Europe, yet) for the more state, in matters of mo 
ment he leaned principally on the shoulders of two prime pre 
lates, having archbishop Morton for his right, and this Fox for 
his left supporter, whom at last he made bishop of Winchester. 
He was bred first in Cambridge, where he was president of 
Pembroke-hall (and gave hangings thereunto with a fox woven 
therein) ; and afterwards in Oxford, where he founded the fair 
college of Corpus Christi (allowing per annum to it 401 /. 8s. 
lle^.) ; which since hath been the nursery of so many eminent 
sholars. He expended much money in beautifying his cathe 
dral in Winchester, and methodically disposed the bodies of the 
Saxon kings and bishops (dispersedly buried in this church) in 
decent tombs erected by him on the walls on each side of the 
choir, which some soldiers, to show their spleen at once against 
crowns and mitres, valiantly fighting against the dust of the dead, 
have since barbarously demolished. Twenty-seven years he 
sat bishop of this see, till he was stark blind with age. All 
thought him to die too soon, one only excepted, who conceived 
him to live too long, viz. Thomas Wolsey, who gaped for his 
bishopric, and endeavoured to render him to the displeasure of 
king Henry the Eighth, whose malice this bishop, though blind 
discovered, and in some measure defeated. He died anno 
Domini 1528, and lies buried in his own cathedral. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

THOMAS GOODRICH was son of Edward Goodrich and Jane 
his wife, of Kirkby in this county, as appeareth by the York 
shire visitation of heralds : in which county the allies of this 
bishop seated themselves, and flourish at this day. He was 
bred in the university of Cambridge, D.D. say some ; of Law, say 
others, in my opinion more probable, because frequently em 
ployed in so many embassies to foreign princes, and at last 
made by king Henry the Eighth bishop of Ely (wherein he con 
tinued above twenty years), and by king Edward the Sixth lord 
chancellor of England. Nor will it be amiss to insert and trans 
late this distich made upon him. 

Et bonus et dives, bent junctus el optimus ordo ; 
Prcecedit bonilas, pone sequuntur opes. 

;< Both good and rich, well joined, best rank d indeed : 
For grace goes first, and next doth wealth succeed." 



T 2 



276 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

I find one pen spirting ink upon him * (which is usual in his 
writings) ; speaking to this effect, "that if he had ability enough 
he had not too much to discharge his office." I behold him as 
one well inclined to the Protestant religion ; and after his re 
signation of the chancellor s t place to Stephen Gardiner, his 
death was very seasonable for his own safety, May 10, 1554, in 
the first of queen Mary, whilst as yet no great violence was used 
to Protestants. 

JOHN WHITGIFT was born at Grimsby in this county ; suc 
cessively bred in Queen s, Pembroke-hall, Peter-house, and 
Trinity College, in Cambridge, Master of the latter; bishop of 
Worcester, and archbishop of Canterbury. But I have largely 
written his life in my "Ecclesiastical History ;" and may truly say, 
with him who constantly returned to all inquirers, < Nil novi 
novi," (I can make no new addition thereunto) ; only since I met 
with this anagram :J " JOANNES WHITEGIFTEUS," (non m egit, 
favet Jesus). 

Indeed he was far from violence ; and his politic patience was 
blessed in a high proportion. He died anno 1603, Feb. 29. 

JOHN STILL, D. D. was born at Grantham in this county, 
and bred, first, fellow of Christ s, then master of St. John s, 
and afterwards of Trinity College in Cambridge, where I have 
read in the register this commendation of him, " that he was 
ayados (covporpo^oe, nee collegio gravis aut onerosus," He was 
one of a venerable presence, not less famous for a preacher than 
a disputant. Finding his own strength, he did not stick to warn 
such as he disputed with in their own arguments, to take heed 
to their answers, like a perfect fencer, that will tell aforehand 
in what button he will give his venue. When, towards the end 
of the reign of queen Elizabeth, there was an (unsucceeding) 
motion of a diet, or meeting, which should have been in Ger 
many, for composing matters of religion ; Doctor Still was 
chosen for Cambridge, and Doctor Humfred for Oxford, to op 
pose all comers for the defence of the English church. 

Anno 1592, being then the second time vice-chancellor of 
Cambridge, he was consecrated bishop of Bath and Wells, and 
defeated all causeless suspicion of symoniacal compliance ; coming 
clearly thereunto, without the least scandal to his person, or loss 
to the place. In his days God opened the bosom of the earth, 
Mendip Hills affording great store of lead, wherewith and with 
his own providence (which is a constant mine of wealth) he 
raised a great estate, and laid the foundation of three families, 

* Sir John Hayward, in the Life of king Edward the Sixth. 
f Peruse Sir Henry Spelman s Glossary, in verbo Chancellariorum. 
J Camden s Remains, page 184. 

$ Sir John Harrington, in his Continuation of Bishop Godwin s Catalogue of 
Bishops. 



STATESMAN. 277 

leaving to each of them a considerable revenue in a worshipful 
condition. He gave five hundred pounds for the building of an 
alms-house in the city of Wells ; and, dying February 26, 
1607, lies buried in his own cathedral, under a neat tomb of ala 
baster. 

MARTIN FOTHERBY, D.D. was born at Great Grimsby in 
this county, of a good family, as appeareth by his epitaph on 
his monument in the church of All-hallows, Lombard street, 
London. He was bred fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge, 
and became afterwards one and twenty years prebendary of 
Canterbury ; then he was preferred by king James bishop of 
Salisbury ; he died in his calling, having begun to put in print 
an excellent book against Atheists, most useful for our age, 
wherein their sin so aboundeth. His death happened March 
11, 1619, not two full years after his consecration. 

STATESMEN. 

EDWARD FINES, lord Clinton, knight of the Garter, was 
lord admiral of England for more than thirty years : a wise, va 
liant, and fortunate gentleman. The master-piece of his service 
was in Musselborough field, in the reign of king Edward the 
Sixth, and the battle against the Scots.* Some will wonder, 
what a fish should do on dry land, what use of an admiral in a 
land fight. But know, the English kept themselves close to the 
shore, under the shelter of their ships ; and whilst their arrows 
could do little, their spears less, their swords nothing, 
against the Scots (who appeared like a hedge of steel, so well 
armed and closed together) : the great ordnance from their ships 
at first did all, making such destruction in the Scottish army, 
that though some may call it a land fight, it was first a victory 
from the sea, and then but an execution on the land.f 

By queen Elizabeth (who honoured her honours by bestow 
ing them sparingly) he was created earl of Lincoln, May 4th, 
1574; and indeed he had breadth to his height, a proportion 
able estate, chiefly in this county, to support his dignity, being 
one of those who,, besides his paternal inheritance, had much 
increased his estate. He died January the sixteenth, 1585 ; 
and lieth buried at Windsor, in a private chapel, under a 
stately monument, which Elizabeth his third wife, daughter to 
the earl of Kildare, erected in his remembrance. 

THOMAS WILSON, doctor of laws, was born in this county ;{ 
bred fellow of King s College in Cambridge; and afterwards 
was tutor in the same university to Henry and Charles Bran 
dons, successively dukes of Suffolk,, Hard shift he made to 

* Sir John Hayward, in the reign of king Edward the Sixth, page 15. 

t Sir John Hayward, ubi supra, page 31. 

j Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. u. 



2/8 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

conceal himself in the reign of queen Mary. Under queen 
Elizabeth he was made Master of the hospital of St. Katherine s 
nigh the Tower of London, upon the same token that he took 
down the choir, which, my author saith, (allow him a little hy 
perbole) was as great as the choir at St. Paul s.* I am loath 
to believe it done out of covetousness, to gain by the materials 
thereof, but would rather conceive it so run to ruin, that it was 
past repairing. He at last became secretary of state to queen 
Elizabeth for four years together. It argues his ability for the 
place, because he was put into it ; seeing in those active times, 
under so judicious a queen, weakness might despair to be em 
ployed in such an office. He died anno Domini 15 . .f 

THOMAS Lord BURGE, or BOROUGH, son to William Lord 
Burge, grandson to Thomas Lord Surge (created baron by king 
Henry the Eighth) was born in his father s fair house at Gains 
borough in this county. J 

His first public appearing was, when he was sent ambassador 
into Scotland, anno 1593, to excuse Both well s lurking in Eng 
land, to advise the speedy suppressing of the Spanish faction, 
and to advance an effectual association of the Protestants in that 
kingdom for their king s defence ; which was done accordingly. 

Now when Sir William Russel, lord deputy of Ireland, was 
recalled, this lord Thomas Burge was substituted in his room, 
anno 1597. Mr. Camden doth thus character him, " vir acer, 
et animi plenus, sed nullis fere castrorum rudimentis." But 
where there is the stock of valour with an able brain, experi 
ence will soon be graffed upon it. It was first thought fit to 
make a month s truce with Tyrone; which cessation, like a 
damn, made their mutual animosities for the present swell 
higher, and, when removed for the future, run the fiercer. The 
lord deputy (the truce expired) straitly besieged the fort of 
Blackwater, the only receptacle of the rebels in those parts (I 
mean, besides their woods and bogs), and the key of the county 
of Tyrone. This fort he took by force ; and presently followed 
a bloody battle, wherein the English paid dear for their victory, 
losing many worthy men, and amongst them two that were 
foster-brothers (fratres collactanei] to the earl of Kildare, who 
so laid this loss to his heart (amongst the Irish, foster-brethren 
are loved above the sons of their fathers), that he died soon after. 
Tyrone s credit now lay a bleeding ; when, to staunch it, he re- 
besieged Blackwater; and the lord deputy, whilst endeavouring 
to relieve it, was struck with untimely death, before he had con 
tinued a whole year in his place. All I will add is this, that it 
brake the heart of valiant Sir John Norris (who had promised 
the deputy s place unto himself, as due to his deserts) when this 

* Stow s Survey of London, in Tower-street Ward. 

f Dr. Wilson died in 1581. See Wood s Fasti, vol. I. p. 93. ED. 

!" Camden s Britannia, in this County. In his Elizabeth, anno 1597. 



STATESMEN JUDGES. 279 

lord Burge was superinduced into that office. His relict lady 
(famous for her charity, and skill in chirurgery) lived long in 
Westminster, and died very aged some twenty years since. 

WILLIAM CECIL. Know, reader, before I go farther, some 
thing must be premised concerning his position in this topic. 
Virgil was profane in his flattery to Augustus Csesar ; proffering 
him his free choice after his death, to be ranked amongst what 
heathen gods he pleased; so that he might take his place 
either amongst those of the land, which had the oversight of 
men and cities ; or the sea-gods, commanding in the ocean ; or 
the sky-gods, and become a new constellation therein.* But, 
without the least adulation, we are bound to proffer this worthy 
peer his own election ; whether he will be pleased to repose 
himself under BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC, all England in 
that age being beholden to his bounty (as well as the poor in 
Stamford, for whom he erected a fair bead-house) acknowledg 
ing, under God and the queen, their prosperity the fruit of his 
prudence. Or else he may rest himself under the title of LAW 
YERS, being long bred in the Inns of Court, and more learned in 
our municipal law than many who made it their sole profession. 
However, for the present, we lodge this English Nestor (for 
wisdom and vivacity) under the notion of STATESMEN, being 
secretary and lord treasurer for above thirty years together. 
Having formerly written his life at large,t it will be enough 
here to observe, that he was born at Bourne in this county, 
being son to Richard Cecil (esquire of the robes to king Henry 
the Eighth, and a legatee in his will) and Jane his wife, of 
whom hereafter. He was in his age moderator aulae, steering 
the court at his pleasure ; and whilst the earl of Leicester 
would endure no equal, and Sussex no superior therein, he, by 
siding with neither, served himself with both. 

Incredible was the kindness which queen Elizabeth had for him, 
or rather for herself in him, being sensible that he was so able a 
minister of state. Coming once to visit him, being sick of the 
gout at Burleigh-house in the Strand, and being much height 
ened with her head attire (then in fashion) ; the lord s servant 
who conducted her through the door, " May your highness," said 
he, t( be pleased to stoop." The queen returned, " For your 
master s sake I will stoop, but not for the king of Spain s." 
This worthy patriot departed this life, in the seventy- seventh 
year of his age, August the 4th, 1598. 

CAPITAL JUDGES. 

[REM.] Sir WILLIAM de SKIPWITH was bred in the study 
of the laws, profiting so well therein, that he was made, in 

* Georgia 1. i. \ In my " Holy State." F. 



280 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

Trinity term, lord chief baron of the Exchequer, in the thirty- 
fifth, continuing therein until the fortieth, of the reign of 
king Edward the Third.* I meet not with any thing memo 
rable of him in our English histories ; except this may pass 
for a thing remarkable, that, at the importunity of John of 
Gaunt duke of Lancaster, this Sir William condemned William 
Wickham, bishop of Winchester, of crimes rather powerfully 
objected than plainly proved against him; whereupon the 
bishop s temporals were taken from him, and he denied access 
within twenty miles of the king s court.f 

I confess there is a village in the East-riding of Yorkshire, 
called Skipwith ; but I have no assurance of this judge s 
nativity therein ; though ready to remove him thither upon 
clearer information. 

[AMP.] Sir WILLIAM SKIPWITH, junior. He was inferior 
to the former in place (whom I behold as a puisne judge) ; 
but herein remarkable to all posterity, that he would not com 
ply, neither for the importunity of king Richard the Second, 
nor the example of his fellow judges,! (in the 10th year of that 
king s reign) to allow that the king by his own power might 
rescind an Act of Parliament. " Solus inter impios mansit in 
teger Gulielmus Skipwith, miles ; clarus ideo apud posteros ; * 
and shined the brighter for living in the midst of a crooked 
generation, bowed with fear and favour into corruption. 

I know well, that the collar of SSS (or Esses) worn about the 
necks of judges (and other persons of honour) is wreathed into 
that form, whence it receiveth its name ; chiefly from Sanctus 
Simon Simplicius, an uncorrupted judge in tie primitive times. 
May I move that every fourth link thereof, when worn, may 
mind them of this Skipwith, so upright in his judgment in a 
matter of the highest importance. 

Having no certainty of his nativity, I place him in this county, 
where his name at Ormesby hath flourished ever since his time 
in a very worshipful equipage. 

[AMP.] Sir WILLIAM HUSEE, Knight, was born, as I have 
cause to believe, in this county, where his name and family 
flourish in a right worshipful equipage. He was bred in the 
study of our municipal law, and attained to such eminency 
therein, that by king Edward the Fourth, in the one and twen 
tieth of his reign, he was made lord chief iustice of the King s 
Bench. || 

Sir Henry Spelman s Glossary, tit. Justitiarius. 

Bishop Godwin, in the Bishops of Winchester, 
t See Sir Robert Belknap, title LAWYERS, in Leicestershire. 
Sir Henry Spelman, in Glossary, verbo Justitiarius, 
|| Spelman s Glossary, p. 417. 



JUDGES. 281 

King Henry the Seventh (who in point of policy was only 
directed by himself) in point of law was chiefly ruled by this 
judge, especially in this question of importance.* It happened 
that in his first parliament many members thereof were returned, 
who (being formerly of this king s party) were attainted, and 
thereby not legal to sit in parliament, being disabled in the 
highest degree, it being incongruous that they should make laws 
for others, who themselves were not inlawed. The king, not a 
little troubled therewith, remitted it as a case in law to the 
judges. The judges, assembled in the Exchequer Chamber, 
agreed all with Sir William Husee (their speaker to the king) 
upon this grave and safe opinion, mixed with law and conveni 
ence, " that the knights and burgesses attainted by the course 
of law should forbear to come into the House, till a law were 
passed for the reversal of their attainders " which was done 
accordingly. When at the same time it was incidently moved, 
in their consultation, what should be done for the king himself, 
who likewise was attainted, the rest unanimously agreed with 
Sir William Husee, " that the crown takes away all defects and 
stops in blood ; and that, by the assumption thereof, the foun 
tain was cleared from all attainders and corruptions." He died 
in Trinity term, in the tenth year of king Henry the Seventh.f 

Sir EDMUND ANDERSON, Knight, was born a younger brother 
of a gentle extract at Flixborough in this county, and bred in 
the Inner Temple. I have been informed that his father left 
him WOOL for his portion, which this our Sir Edmund mul 
tiplied into many, by his great proficiency in the common law, 
being made in the twenty-fourth of queen Elizabeth chief justice 
of the Common Pleas. 

When secretary Davison was sentenced in the Star Chamber 
for the business of the queen of Scots, judge Anderson said of 
him, " that therein he had done justum non juste ;" and so, ac 
quitting him of all malice, censured him, with the rest, for his 
indiscretion. J 

When Henry Cuff was arraigned about the rising of the earl 
of Essex, and when Sir Edward Coke the queen s solicitor 
opposed him, and the other answered syllogistically, our Ander 
son (sitting there as judge of law not logic) checked both 
pleader and prisoner, " ob stolidos syllogismos," (for their 
foolish syllogisms), appointing the former to press the statute 
of king Edward the Third. His stern countenance well became 
his place, being a great promoter of the established church dis 
cipline, and very severe against all Brownists \vhen he met them 
in his circuit. He died in the third of king James, leaving great 
estates to several sons ; of whom I behold Sir Francis Anderson 

* Lord Verulam, in the Life of king Henry the Seventh, p. 242. 

f Spelman s Glossary, ut prius. J Camden s Elizabeth, anno 1587. 

Idem, anno 1600. 



282 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

of Edworth in Bedfordshire the eldest, whose son Sir John, by 
a second wife Audrey Butler (niece to the duke of Buckingham, 
and afterwards married to the Lord Dunsmore in Warwickshire) 
was (according to some conditions in his patent) to succeed his 
father-in-law in that honour, if surviving him. This I thought 
fit to insert, to vindicate his memory from oblivion, who, being 
a hopeful gentleman (my fellow colleague in Sidney College), 
was taken away in the prime of his youth. 

SOLDIERS. 

Sir FREDERIC TILNEY, Knight, had his chief residence at 
Boston in this county.* He was a man of mighty stature and 
strength, above the proportion of ordinary persons. He at 
tended king Richard the First, anno Domini 1190, to the siege 
of Aeon in the Holy Land, where his achievements were such, 
that he struck terror into the infidels. Returning home in 
safety, he lived and died at Terington nigh Tilney in Norfolk, 
where the measure of his incredible stature was for many years 
preserved. Sixteen knights nourished from him successively in 
the male line, till at last their heir general being married to the 
duke of Norfolk, put a period to the lustre of that ancient family ,f 

[S. N.] PEREGRINE BERTY, Lord Willoughby, son of Rich 
ard Berty, and Katherine duchess of Suffolk. Reader, I crave 
a dispensation, that I may, with thy good leave, trespass on the 
premised laws of this book; his name speaking his foreign 
nativity, born nigh Hidelberg in the Palatinate. Indeed I am 
loath to omit so worthy a person. Our histories fully report 
his valiant achievements in France and the Netherlands, and 
how at last he was made governor of Berwick. He could not 
brook the obsequiousness and assiduity of the Court ; and was 
wont to say, " That he was none of the reptilia, which could 
creep on the ground/ 3 The camp was his proper element; 
being a great soldier, and having a suitable magnanimity. 

When one sent him an insulting challenge, whilst he lay sick 
of the gout, he returned this answer, " That although he was 
lame of his hands and feet, yet he would meet him with a piece 
of a rapier in his teeth." 

Once he took a gennet, managed for the war, which was in 
tended for a present to the king of Spain ; and was desired by 
a trumpeter from the general to restore it, offering this lord 
WOOL down for him, or 100/. per annum during his life at his 
own choice. This lord returned, "That if it had been any 
commander, he freely would have sent him back ; but, being 
but a horse, he loved him as well as the king of Spain himself, 
and would keep him." Here I will insert a letter of queen 
Elizabeth, written to him with her own hand ; and, reader, deal 

* Hacluit, in his first volume of Sea Voyages. 

t Weever, in bis Funeral Monuments, in Norfolk, p. 817. 



SOLDIERS. 283 

in matters of this nature, as when venison is set before thee 
eat the one, and read the other ; never asking whence either 
came, though I profess I came honestly by a copy thereof, 
from the original : 

" Good Peregrine, we are not a little glad that by your jour 
ney you have received such good fruit of amendment ; specially 
when we consider how great vexation it is to a minde devoted 
to actions of honour, to be restrained by any indisposition of 
body, from following those courses, which, to your own reputa 
tion and our great satisfactisn, you have formerly performed. 
And, therefore, as we must now (out of our desire of your well 
doing) chiefly enjoyne you to an especial care to encrease and 
continue your health, which must give life to all your best en 
deavours ; so we must next as seriously recommend to you this 
consideration ; that in these times, when there is such appear 
ance that we shall have the triall of our best and noble subjects, 
you seem not to affect the satisfaction of your own private con- 
tentation, beyond the attending on that which nature and duty 
challengeth from all persons of your quality and profession. 
For if necessarily (your health of body being recovered) you 
should elloigne yourself by residence there from those imploy- 
ments, whereof we shall have too good store ; you shall not 
so much amend the state of your body, as happily you shall call 
in question the reputation of your mind and judgment, even in 
the opinion of those that love you, and are best acquainted with 
your indisposition and discretion. 

" Interpret this our plainness, we pray you, to our extraor 
dinary estimation of you ; for it is not common with us to deal 
so freely with many ; and believe that you shall ever find us 
both ready and willing in all occasions to yeild you the fruits of 
that interest, which your endeavours have purchased for you in 
our opinion and estimation. Nor doubting but when you have 
with moderation made tryal of the success of these your sundry 
peregrinations, you will find as great comfort to spend your 
dayes at home as heretofore you have done ; of which we do 
wish you full measure, howsoever you shall have cause of abode 
or return. Given under our signet, at our manor of Nonesuch, 
the seventh of October 1594, in the 37th year of our reign. 

" Your most loving Soveraign, 

E. R." 

It appears by the premises, that it was written to this lord 
when he was at the Spa in Lukeland, for the recovery of his 
health, when a second English invasion of the Spaniard was (I 
will not say feared, but) expected. Now though this lord was 
born beyond the seas accidentally (his parents flying persecu 
tion in the reign of queen Mary), yet must he justly be reputed 
this countryman, where his ancestors had flourished so many 
years, and where he was baron Willoughby in right of his mo- 



284 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

ther. He died anno Domini 1601 ; and lies buried under a 
stately monument at Eresby in this county. 

Sir EDWARD HARWOOD was born nigh Bourne, in this 
county, a valiant soldier and a gracious man. Such who 
object that he was extremely wild in his youth, put me in mind 
of the return which one made to an ill-natured man in a com 
pany, who with much bitterness had aggravated the debauched 
youth of an aged and right godly divine : " You have proved," 
said he, " with much pains what all knew before, that Paul was 
a great persecutor before he was converted." 

I have read of a bird, which hath a face like, and yet will 
prey upon, a man ; who coming to the water to drink, and find 
ing there by reflection that he had killed one like himself, 
pineth away by degrees, and never afterwards enjoyeth itself. 
Such in some sort the condition of Sir Edward. This accident, 
that he had killed one in a private quarrel, put a period to his 
carnal mirth, and was a covering to his eyes all the days of his 
life. No possible provocations could afterwards tempt him to 
a duel : and no wonder if one s conscience loathed that whereof 
he had surfeited. He refused all challenges with more honour 
than others accepted them ; it being well known, that he would 
set his foot as far in the face of an enemy as any man alive. 
He was one of the four standing colonels in the Low Countries, 
and was shot at the siege of Maestricht, anno Domini 1632. 
Death was so civil to him as to allow him leave to rise up on 
his knees, and to cry " Lord have mercy upon me." Thus a 
long death-prayer after short piety is not so good, as a short 
prayer after a long pious conversation. 

SEAMEN. 

JOB HARTOP was (as himself* affirmeth) born at Bourne in 
this county, and went anno 1568 (early days, I assure you, for 
the English in those parts) with Sir John Hawkins, his general, 
to make discoveries in New Spain. This Job was chief gunner 
in her majesty s ship called the Jesus of Lubec, being the 
queen s by no other title but as hired for her money, who in 
the beginning of her reign, before her navy-royal was erected, 
had her ships from the Hans-towns. 

Long and dangerous was his journey ; eight of his men at 
Cape Verd being killed, and the general himself wounded with 
poisoned arrows, but was cured by a negro drawing out the 
poison with a clove of garlic,t enough to make nice noses dis 
pense with the valiant smell for the sanative virtue thereof. 

He wrote a treatise of his voyage ; and is the first I met 
with, who mentioneth that strange tree, which may be termed 
the tree of food, affording a liquor which is both meat and 

* In his Travels, inserted in Hackluit s Voyages, last Part, p. 487. 
f Idem, ibidem. 



SEAMEN. 285 

drink; the free of raiment, yielding needles wherewith, and 
thread whereof, mantles are made ; the tree of harbour, tiles to 
cover houses, being made out of the solid parts thereof ; so that 
it beareth a self-sufficiency for man s maintenance. 

Job was his name, and patience was with him ; so that he 
may pass amongst the Confessors of this county ; for, being 
with some other by this general, for want of provisions, left on 
land, after many miseries they came to Mexico, and he con 
tinued a prisoner twenty-three years, viz. two years in Mexico, 
one year in the Contraction-house in Seville, another in the 
Inquisition-house in Triana, twelve years in the galleys, four 
years (with the Cross of St. Andrew on his back) in the Ever 
lasting-Prison, and three years a drudge to Hernando de Soria ; 
to so high a sum did the inventory of his sufferings amount. 

So much of his patience. Now see <e the end which the Lord 
made with him." Whilst enslaved to the aforesaid Hernando, 
he \vas sent to sea in a Flemish, which was afterward taken 
by an English ship, called the Galeon Dudley ; and so was he 
safely landed at Portsmouth, December the second, 1590; and, 
I believe, lived not long after. 

Sir WILLIAM MOUNSON, Knight, was extracted of an ancient 
family in this shire ; and was from his youth bred in sea-service, 
wherein he attained to great perfection. Queen Elizabeth, 
having cleared Ireland of the Spanish forces, and desiring 
carefully to prevent a relapse, altered the scene of war, from 
Ireland to Spain, from defending to invading. 

Sir Richard Leveson was admiral ; our Sir William, vice- 
admiral ; anno 1602. 

These, without drawing a sword, killed trading quite on the 
coasts of Portugal, no vessels daring to go in or out of their 
harbours. 

They had intelligence of a caract ready to land in Sisimbria, 
which was of 1600 ton, richly laden, out of the East Indies; 
and resolved to assault it, though it seemed placed in an invin 
cible posture. Of itself it was a giant in comparison to our 
pigmy ships, and had in her three hundred Spanish gentlemen ; 
the Marquess de Sancta Cruce lay hard by with thirteen ships, 
and all were secured under the command of a strong and well 
fortified castle. But nothing is impossible to man s valour and 
God s blessing thereon. After a fair dispute (which lasted for 
some hours) with syllogisms of fire and sword, the caract was 
conquered, the wealth taken therein amounting to the value of 
ten hundred thousand crowns of Portugal account.* But, 
though the goods gotten therein might be valued, the good 
gained thereby was inestimable ; for henceforward they beheld 

* Camden s Elizabeth, anno 1602. 



286 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

the English with admiring eyes, and quitted their thoughts of 
invasion. This worthy knight died about the midst of the 
reign of king James. 

WRITERS. 

This county hath afforded many ; partly because so large in 
itself; partly because abounding with so many monasteries 
(whereof two mitred ones,, Crowland and Bardney) the semina 
ries of many learned men ; not to speak of the cathedral of Lin 
coln and embryo university of Stamford,, wherein many had 
their education. Wherefore, to pass by Fcelix Crowlandensis, 
Kimbertus Lindesius, and others, all of them not affording so 
much true history as will fill a hollow quill therewith, we take 
notice of some principal ones ; and begin with, 

GILBERT of HOLLAND. He took his name, not as others 
. from a single town, but a great part of ground, the third part 
of this tripartite county ; which, in my apprehension, argues his 
diligence in preaching thereabouts. But, quitting his native 
land, he was invited by the famous St. Bernard to go to and 
live with him at Clarvaulx in Burgundy, where he became his 
scholar. 

Some will prize a crumb of foreign praise before a loaf of 
English commendation, as subject to partiality to their own 
countrymen. Let such hear how abbot Trithemius the German 
commendeth our Gilbert : " Vir erat in Scripturis Divinis stu- 
diosus et egregie doctus, ingenio subtilis, et clarus eloquio." 

The poets feign that Hercules for a time supplied the place of 
wearied Atlas, in supporting the heavens. So our Gilbert was 
frequently substitute to St. Bernard ; continuing his sermons 
where the other brake off, from those words " in lectulo meo 
per noctes," &c. unto the end of the book, being forty-six ser 
mons, in style scarce discernible from St. Bernard s. He flou 
rished anno Domini 1200 ; and was buried at Cistreaux in France. 

ROGER of CROULAND was bred a Benedictine monk therein, 
and afterwards became abbot of Friskney in this county. He 
was the seventh man in order, who wrote the Life of Thomas 
Becket. Some will say his six elder brethren left his pen but a 
pitiful portion, to whom it was impossible to present the reader 
with any remarkable novelty in so trite a subject. But know, 
that the pretended miracles of Becket daily multiplying, the 
last writer had the most matter in that kind. He divided his 
book into seven volumes, and was full fifteen years in making 
it, from the last of king Richard the First, to the fourteenth 
of king John. But whether this elephantine birth answered 
that proportion of time in the performance thereof, let others 
decide. He flourished anno Domini 1214. 



WRITERS. 287 

EL IAS de TREKINGHAM was born in this county, at a village 
so called, as by the sequent will appear. 

Ingulphus* relateth, that in the year of our Lord 870, in the 
month of September, Count Algar, with others, bid battle to 
the Danes in Kesteven, a third of this county, and worsted 
them, killing three of their kings, whom the Danes buried in a 
village therein, formerly called Laundon, but after Trekingham. 
Nor do I know any place to which the same name, on the like 
accident, can be applied, except it be Alcaser in Africa, where, 
anno 1578, Sebastian the Portugal and two other Moorish 
kings were killed in one battle. 

I confess no such place as Trekingham appeareth at this day 
in any catalogue of English Towns ; whence I conclude it a pa 
rish some years since depopulated, or never but a churchless 
village. This Elias was a monk of Peterborough,f doctor of 
divinity in Oxford, a learned man, and great lover of history, 
writing himself a chronicle from the year of our Lord 626, till 
1270, at what time it is probable he deceased. 

HUGO KIRKSTED was born at that well known town in this 
county, being bred a Benedictine- Cistercian-Bernardine. A Cis 
tercian is a reformed Benedictine, a Bernardine is a reformed 
Cistercian ; so that our Hugh may charitably be presumed pure, 
as twice refined. He consulted one Serlo, an aged man, and 
one of his own order ; and they both clubbing their pains and 
brains together, made a chronicle of the Cistercians from their 

O f 

first coming into England, anno 1131 (when Walter de Espeke 
founded their first abbey at Rivaux in Yorkshire). Our Hugh 
did write, Serlo did indite, being almost an hundred years old, 
so that his memory was a perfect chronicle of all remarkable 
passages from the beginning of his order.J Our Hugo flou 
rished anno Domini 1220. 



WILLIAM LIDLINGTON was born, say some, at that village 
in Cambridgeshire j at a village so named in this county say 
others, with whom I concur, because he had his education at 
Stamford. He was by profession a Carmelite, and became the 
fifth Provincial of his order in England. Monasteries being 
multiplied in that age, Gerardus a Frenchman, master-general 
of the Carmelites, in a Synod at Narbonne, deputed two Eng 
lish Provincials of that order, to the great grievance of our Lid- 
lington, refusing to subscribe to the decisions of that Synod. 
His stubbornness cost him an excommunication from Pope Cle 
ment the Fifth, and frrar years penance of banishment from his 
native country. Mean time our Lidlington, living at Paris, ac- 

* Pag. 865. 

f Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iv. num. 31. Pits, de Scriptoribus An- 
gliae, pag. 35. anno 1270. 

\ Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iii. num. 81. 



288 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

quired great credit unto himself by his lectures and disputa 
tions.* At last he was preferred Provincial of the Carmelites 
in Palestine (whence from Mount Carmel he fetched their ori 
ginal) ; and he himself best knew whether the depth of his 
profit answered the height of his honour therein,, which I sus 
pect the rather, because returning into England he died and 
was buried at Stamford, anno Domini 1309. 

NICHOLAS STANFORD. He was born at that well known 
town, once offering to be a university, and bred a Bernardino 
therein. The eulogy given him by learned Leland ought not 
to be measured by the yard, but weighed in the balance : " Ad- 
mirabar hominem ejus eetatis tarn argute, tarn solido, tamque 
signifi canter potuisse scribere ;" (I admired much that a man of 
his age could write so smartly, so solidly, so significantly.) Un 
derstand him not, that one so infirm with age, or decrepit in 
years, but that one living in so ignorant and superstitious a 
generation, could write so tersely ; flourishing, as may be col 
lected, about the year of our Lord 1310. 

JOHN BLOXHAM was born at that town in this county, and 
bred a Carmelite in Chester. I confess it is a common expres 
sion of the countryfolk in this county, when they intend to 
character a dull, heavy, blundering person, to say of him, " he 
was born at Bloxham ;" but indeed our John, though there first 
encradled, had acuteness enough, and some will say activity too 
much for a friar. He advantageously fixed himself at Chester, 
a city in England, near Ireland, and not far from Scotland, 
much conducing to his ease, who was supreme Prefect of his 
order through those three nations, for two years and a half;f 
for afterwards he quitted that place, so great was his employ 
ment under king Edward the Second and Third, in several em 
bassies into Scotland and Ireland; flourishing anno 1334. 

JOHN HORNBY was born in this county,J bred a Carmelite, 
D. D. in Cambridge. In his time happened a tough contest 
betwixt the Dominicans and Carmelites about priority. 

Plaintiff, Dominican John Stock (or Stake rather, so sharp 
and poignant his pen) left marks in the backs of his adversaries. 

Judges John Donwick the chancellor, and the doctors of 
the university. 

Defendant, Carmelite John Hornby, who, by his preaching 
and writing, did vindicate the seniority of his order. 

But our Hornby, with his Carmelites, clearly carried away 
the conquest of precedency, and got it confirmed under the au 
thentic seal of the university. 

* Ibid. Cent. iv. n. 79. 

f Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. v. p. 399. 

j Pits, de Angliae Scriptoribus, num. 636. 



WRITERS. 289 

However,, the Dominicans desisted not to justle with them 
for the upper hand, until Henry the Eighth made them friends 
by thrusting both out of the land. Our Hornby flourished 
anno Domini 1374 ; and was buried at his convent in Boston. 

BOSTON of BURY, for so he is generally called.* I shall en 
deavour to restore him first to his true name, then to his native 
country. Some presume Boston to be his Christian ; of Bury, 
his surname. But seeing Boston is no font name, and godfa 
thers were conscientious in those days (I appeal to all English 
antiquaries) in imposing, if not Scripture or Saints names, yet 
such as were commonly known (the christianizing of surnames 
to baptized infants being of more modern device), we cannot 
concur with their judgment herein. And now thanks be to 
Doctor John Caius, who, in the catalogue of his author cited in 
the " Defence of the Antiquity of Cambridge/ calleth him John 
Boston of Bury, being born at and taking his surname from 
Boston in this county, (which was customary for the clergymen 
in those days), though he lived a monk in Bury. Thus, in point 
of nativities, Suffolk hath not lost, but Lincolnshire hath reco 
vered, a writer belonging unto it. 

He travelled all over England, and exactly perused the library 
in all monasteries, whereby he was enabled to write a catalogue 
of ecclesiastical writers, as well foreign as English, extant in his 
age. Such his accurateness, as not only to tell the initial words 
in every of their books, but also to point at the place in each 
library where they are to be had. John Leland oweth as much 
to this John Boston, as John Bale doth to him, and John Pits 
to them both. His manuscript was never printed, nor was it 
my happiness to see it ; but I have often heard the late reve 
rend archbishop of Armaghf rejoice in this, that he had, if not 
the first, the best copy thereof in Europe. Learned Sir James 
WARE transcribed these verses out of it : which, because they 
conduce to the clearing of his nativity, I have here inserted, re 
questing the reader not to measure his prose by his poetry, 
though he dedicated it to no meaner than Henry the Fourth, 
king of England : 

" Qui legis hunc Librum, Scriptorum, Rex, miserere, 
Dum scripsit vere , non fecit (ut sestimo) pigrum. 
Si tibi displiceat, veniat tua gratia grandis ; 
Quam cunctis pandis, hsec sibi sufficiat. 
Scriptoris nomen Botolphi Villa vocatur ; 
Q.ui condemnatur nisi gratum det Deus omen. 

Sure it is, that his writings are esteemed the rarity of rarities 
by the lovers of antiquities ; which I speak in humble advice to 
the reader, if possessed thereof to keep and value them ; if not, 
not to despise his books, if on any reasonable price they may 
be procured. This John Boston flourished anno Domini 1410. 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. vii. n. 48 : and Pits, in anno 1410. 
f Dr. James Usher. ED. 

VOL. II. U 



290 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

LAURENCE HOLEBECK was born, saith my author,* " apud 
Girvios ;" that is, amongst the Fenlanders. I confess, such peo 
ple with their stilts do stride over much ground, the parcels of 
several shires, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, Huntingdon, North 
ampton, Lincolnshire. But I have fixed him right in this county, 
where Holebeck is not far from Crowland in Holland. 

He was bred a monk in the abbey of Ramsey, and was very 
well skilled in the Hebrew tongue, according to the rate of that 
age : for the Englismen were so great strangers in that language, 
that even the priests amongst them, in the reign of king Henry 
the Eighth, as Erasmus reporteth, " Isti quicquid non intelli- 
gunt Hebraicum vocant,"t (counted all things Hebrew which 
they did not understand) ; and so they reputed a tablet which 
he wrote upon Walsingham in great Roman letters, out of the 
road of common cognizance. Holebeck made a Hebrew Dic 
tionary, which was counted very exact according to those days. 
I. Pits doth heavily complain of Robert Wakefeild (the first 
Hebrew professor of Cambridge) that he purloined this Dic 
tionary to his private use ; whereon all I will observe is this : 

It is re solved in the law, that the taking of another man s sheep 
is felony, whilst the taking away of a sheep-pasture is but a 
trespass, the party pretending a right thereunto. Thus I know 
many men so conscientious, that they will not take twenty lines 
together from any author (without acknowledging it in the mar 
gin), conceiving it to be the fault of a plagiary. Yet the same 
critics repute it no great guilt to seize a whole manuscript, if 
they can conveniently make themselves the masters, though 
not owners thereof ; in which act none can excuse them, 
though we have too many precedents hereof. This Laurence 
died anno Domini 1410. 

BERTRAM FITZALIN. Finding him charactered illustri 
stemmate oriundus,% I should have suspected him a Sussex man, 
and allied to the earls of Arundel, had not another author posi 
tively informed me he was patria Lincolniensi, bred B. D. in 
Oxford, and then lived a Carmelite in the city of Lincoln. Here 
he built a fair library on his and his friend s cost, and furnish 
ed it with books, some of his own making, but more purchased. 
He lived well beloved, and died much lamented, the seven 
teenth of March 1424. 

WRITERS SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

EDMUND SHEFFEILD (descended from Robert Sheffeild, Re 
corder of London, knighted by king Henry the Seventh, || 149G, 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. vii. 

f In his Dialogue, Per Religi. Er. 

J Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. \u. num. 64. 

Pits, de Angliic Scriptoribus, anno 1424. 

II Stow s Survey of London, p. 574. 



WRITERS. 291 

for his good service against the rebels at Blackheath) was born 
at Butterwick in the Isle of Axholm in this county, and was In 
king Edward the Sixth created baron thereof. Great his skill 
in music, who wrote a book of sonnets according to the Italian 
fashion. He may seem, swan-like, to have sung his own funeral, 
being soon after slain (or murdered rather) in a skirmish against 
the rebels in Norwich ; first unhorsed and cast into a ditch, and 
then slaughtered by a butcher, who denied him quarter, 1449. 
He was direct ancestor to the hopeful earl of Mulgrave. 

PETER MORWING was born in this county, and bred fellow 
of Magdalen College in Oxford.* Here I cannot but smile at 
the great praise which I. Pits bestoweth upon him: "Vir 
omni Latini sermonis elegantia belle instructus, et qui scripta 
quEedam, turn versu, turn prosa, terse nitideque composuisse 

perhibetur."f 

It plainly appeareth he mistook him for one of his own per 
suasion ; and would have retracted this character, andbeshrewed 
his own fingers for writing it, had he known him to have been a 
most cordial Protestant. J Nor would he have afforded him the 
phrase of "claruit sub Philippo et Maria," who under their 
reigns was forced, for his conscience, to fly into Germany, where 
he supported himself by preaching to the English exiles. I 
find not what became of him after his return into England in 
the reign of queen Elizabeth. 

ANTHONY GILBY was born in this county, and bred in 
Christ s College in Cambridge, where he attained to great skill 
in the three learned languages, But what gave him the 
greatest reputation with Protestants, was, that in the reign of 
queen Mary he had been an exile at .Geneva for his conscience. 
Returning into England, he became a fierce, fiery, and furious 
opposer of the church discipline established in England, as in 
our " Ecclesiastical History " may appear. The certain date of 
his death is to me unknown. 

JOHN Fox was born at Boston in this county, and bred fellow 
in Magdalen College in Oxford. He fled beyond the seas in 
the reign of queen Mary, where he set forth the first and least 
edition of the "Book of Martyrs" in Latin, and afterwards, re 
turning into England, enlarged and twice revised the same in 
our own language. 

The story is sufficiently known of the two servants, whereof 
the one told his master, " he would do every thing ;" the other 
(which was even Esop himself) said, " he could do nothing ;" 
rendering this reason, " because his former fellow servant would 

Bale, de Scriptoribus sui temporis. f De Anglitc Scriptoribus, page 757. 

J P. Morvinus voluntarium in Germania exilium, turpi in Collegio remansioni, 
praetulit. Dr. Humfred, in Vita Juelli, page 73. J. Bale. 

u 2 



292 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

leave him nothing to do."* But in good earnest, as to the par 
ticular subject of our English martyrs, Mr. Fox "hath done 
every thing " (leaving posterity nothing to work upon) ; and to 
those who say " he hath overdone something/ we have returned 
our answer before.f 

He was one of prodigious charity to the poor, seeing nothing 
could bound his bounty but want of money to give away : but 
1 have largely written of his life and death in my " Church 
History/ 

THOMAS SPARKS, D.D. was born at South Sommercot in this 
county, bred in Oxford, and afterwards became minister of 
Bleachley in Buckinghamshire : an impropriation which the 
lord Gray of Wilton (whose dwelling was at Whaddon hard by) 
restored to the church.J He was a solid divine and learned 
man, as by his works still extant doth appear. At first he was a 
Nonconformist, and therefore was chosen by that party as one 
of their champions in the Conference of Hampton Court. Yet 
was he wholly silent in that disputation, not for any want of abi 
lity, but because (as afterwards it did appear) he was convinced in 
his conscience at that conference of the lawfulness of ceremo 
nies, so that some accounted him king James s convert herein. 
He afterwards set forth a book of Unity and Uniformity, and 
died about the year of our Lord 1610. 

DOCTOR TIGHE was born at Deeping in this county, bred 
(as I take it) in the university of Oxford. He afterwards be 
came archdeacon of Middlesex, and minister of All-hallows 
Barking, London. He was an excellent textuary and profound 
linguist, the reason why he was employed by king James in 
translating of the Bible. He died (as I am informed by his ne- 
phew,) about the year of our Lord 1620; leaving to John 
Tighe his son, of Carby in this county, Esquire, an estate of 
one thousand pounds a year ; and none, I hope, have cause to 
envy or repine thereat. 

FINES MORISON, brother to Sir Richard Morison, lord pre 
sident of Munster, was born in this county of worshipful extrac 
tion, and bred a fellow of Peter-house in Cambridge. He began 
his travels May the first, 1591, over a great part of Christen 
dom, and no small share of Turkey, even to Jerusalem, and 
afterwards printed his observations in a large book, which for the 
truth thereof is in good reputation ; for of so great a traveller 
he had nothing of a traveller in him, as to stretch in his reports. 
At last he was secretary to Charles Blunt, deputy of Ireland, 

* In vita yEsopi. 

f In our Description of Berkshire, under the title of CONFESSORS. 

j So am I informed by his grandchild and heir. 

laving at Tenterbury in Kent. 



BENEFACTORS. 293 

saw and wrote the conflicts with and conquest of Tyrone, a dis 
course which deserveth credit, because the writer s eye guided 
his pen, and the privacy of his place acquainted him with many 
secret passages of importance. He died about the year of our 
Lord 1614. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

Having formerly presented the reader with two eminent ones, 
Bishop Wainfleit, founder of New College, and Bishop Fox, 
founder of Corpus Christi in Oxford ; he (if but of an ordinary 
appetite) will be plentifully feasted therewith ; so that we may 
proceed to those who were 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

WILLIAM RATCLIFFE, Esquire, and four times alderman of 
the town of Stamford, died anno Domini 1530 : gave all his 
messuages, lands, and tenements in the town, to the mainte 
nance of a free school therein,* which lands for the present yield 
thirty pounds per annum, or thereabouts, to a school-master 
and usher. I am informed that an augmentation was since 
given to their stipend by William Cecil, lord treasurer ; but it 
seems that since, some intervening accident hath hindered it 
from taking the true effect. 

JANE CECIL, wife to Richard Cecil, Esquire/ and coheir to 
the worshipful families of Ekington and Wallcot, was born in 
this county, and lived the main of her life therein.f Job, 
speaking of parents deceased, " His sons/ saith he, " come to 
honour, and he knoweth it not ;"J but God gave this good wo 
man so long a life (abating but little of a hundred years) that 
she knew the preferment of her son, William Cecil, for many 
years in her life, lord treasurer of England. I say she knew it, 
and saw it, and joyed at it, and was thankful to God for it ; for 
well may we conclude her gratitude to God, from her charity to 
man. At her own charges, anno 1561, she leaded and paved 
the Friday Market Cross in Stamford ; besides fifty pounds 
given to the poor, and many other benefactions. Her last will 
was made anno Domini 1588. But she survived some time 
after, and lies buried, in the same vault with her son, in St. 
Martin s in Stamford. 

[AMP.] GEORGE TRIGG, Gentleman, was, as I collect, a na 
tive of this county ; he gave, anno Domini 1586, four hundred 
pounds, to be lent out for ever, upon good security, without in 
terest, to poor young tradesmen and artificers in Stamford. || 

* R Butcher, in his Survey of Stamford, page 82. 

t Camden s Eliz. in anno 15. J Job xiv. 21. 

Richard Butcher, in his Survey of Stamford, page ;, 

II Idem, pages 33 and 38. 



094 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

He also bestowed a tenement upon the parson and poor of St. 
John s in the same town. 

RICHARD SUTTON, Esquire, was born at Knaith in this county, 
bred a soldier in his youth, and was somewhat of pay-master by 
his place; much money therefore passing through, some did 
lawfully stick on his fingers, which became the bottom of his 
future estate. He was afterward a merchant in London, and 
gained great wealth therein. Such who charge him with pur- 
blindness in his soul, looking too close on the earth, do them 
selves acquit him from oppression ; that, though tenax, he was 
not rapax ; not guilty of covetousness, but parsimony. 

Indeed, there was a merchant, his comrade, whose name 1 wil 
conceal (except the great estate he left doth discover it (with 
whom he had company in common; but their charges were se 
veral to themselves. When his friend in travel called for two 
faggots, Mr. Button called for one; when his friend for half a 
pint of wine, Mr. Suttonfor a gill, underspending him a moiety. 
At last, Mr. Sutton hearing of his friend s death, and 
left but fifty thousand pounds estate, " I thought, said he, < he 
would die no rich man, who made such needless expences. 

Indeed, Mr. Button s estate doubled his ; and he bestowed it 
all on Charter-house, or Sutton s Hospital. This is the master 
piece of Protestant English charity ; designed in his lite ; com 
pleted after his death ; begun, continued, and finished, with 
buildings and endowments, sine causa socta, solely at his charges ; 
wherein Mr. Sutton appears peerless in all Christendom, on an 
fiqual standard and valuation of revenue. As for the canker of 
Popish malice endeavouring to fret this fair flower, we have re 
turned plentiful answers to their cavils in our Ecclesiastical 
History." Mr. Sutton died anno Domini 1611. 

ROBERT JOHNSON was born at Stamford, whereof Maurice 
his father had been chief magistrate. He was bred in Cam 
bridge, and entering into the ministry, he was benenced at Lui- 
fenham in Rutland, at what time that little county was at a great 
loss for the education of the children therein ; and Mr. Johnson 
endeavoured a remedy thereof. 

He had a rare faculty in requesting of others into his own de 
sire, and with his arguments could surprise a miser into charity. 
He effectually moved those of the vicinage, to contribute, to the 
building and endowing of schools, money or money worth ; 
stones, timber, carriage, &c. ; not slighting the smallest gift, es 
pecially if proportionable to the giver s estate. Hereby nnding 
none, he left as many free schools in Rutland, as there we 
market towns therein ; one at Okeham, another at Uppmgham, 
well faced with buildings, and lined with endowments. 

Hitherto he was only a nurse to the charity of others, erect 
ing the schools aforesaid, as my author observeth,* who after- 

* Camdcu s Britannia, iu Rutland, e btirpe colkticia. 



MEMORABLE PERSONS. 295 

wards proved a fruitful parent in his own person, becoming a 
considerable benefactor to Emanuel and Sidney colleges in 
Cambridge ; and, though never dignified higher than archdeacon 
of Leicester, he left an estate of one thousand pounds per annum, 
which descended to his posterity. He died about the year of 
our Lord 1616. 

FRANCES WRAY, daughter to Sir Chichester Wray, lord 
chief justice, was born at Glentworth in this county ; and mar 
ried first unto Sir George St. Paul of this county, and afterwards 
to Robert Rich, first earl of Warwick of that surname. She 
was a pious lady, much devoted to charitable actions, though I 
am not perfectly instructed in the particulars of her benefactions. 
Only I am sure Magdalen College in Cambridge hath tasted 
largely of her liberality ; who died in the beginning of the reign 
of king Charles. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

JAMES YORKE, a blacksmith of Lincoln, and an excellent 
workman in his profession, insomuch that if Pegasus himself 
would wear shoes, this man alone is fit to make them, contriving 
them so thin and light, as that they would be no burden to him. 
But he is a servant as well of Apollo as Vulcan, turning his 
stiddy into a study, having lately set forth a book of heraldry 
called "The Union of Honour," containing the arms of the 
English nobility, and the gentry of Lincolnshire. And although 
there be some mistake (no hand so steady as always to hit the 
nail on the head), yet is it of singular use and industriously per 
formed ; being set forth anno 1640. 

LORD MAYORS. 

1 . John Stockton, son of Richard Stockton, of Bratoft, Mercer, 

1470. 

2. Nicholas Aldwin, son of Richard Aldwin, of Spalding, Mercer, 

1499. 

3. William Rennington, son of Robert Rennington, of Boston, 

Fishmonger, 1500. 

4. William Forman, son of William Forman, of Gainsborough, 

Haberdasher, 1538. 

5. Henry Hoberthorn, son of Christ. Hoberthorn, of Wadding- 

worth, Merchant Taylor, 1546. 

6. Henry Amcoates, son of William Amcoates, of Astrap, Fish 

monger, 1548. 

7. John Langley, son of Robert Langley, of Althrope, Gold 

smith, 1576. 

8. John Allot, son of Richard Allot, of Limbergh, Fishmonger, 

1590. 

9. Nicholas Raynton, son of Robert Raynton, of Heighington, 

Haberdasher, 1632. 



29f> 



WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 



THE NAMES OF THE GENTRY OF THIS COUNTY, 

RETURNED BY THE COMMISSIONERS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF KING HENRY 

THE SIXTH. 

William Bishop of Lincoln, and Lion de Welles, chevalier ; 
Thomas Meres, and Patricius Skipwith, (knights of the shire) ; 
Commissioners. 



Johannis Willoughby, militis. 
Roberti Ros, militis. 
Humfridi Littelbery, armig. 
Philippi Tilney, arm. 
Johannis Copuldik, arm. 
Richardi Laund, arm. 
Willielmi Braunche, arm. 
Richardi Pynchebek. 
Richardi Welby. 
Richardi Benynington. 
Willielmi Goding de Boston. 
Gilberti Haltoft. 
Will. Hughbert de Doning. 
Will. Quadring de Tofte. 
Johan. Pawlyn de Frampton. 



Johannis Leek de Grantham. 
Will. Mapulbeck de Granth. 
Joh. Chevercourt de Stannf. 
Nich. Mason de Blankeney. 
Joh. Chapelyn de Sleford. 
Thomse Sleford de Kirkeby. 
Joh. Hardyng de Kime. 
Joh. Wykes, armigeri, de Kis- 

teven. 

Hugonis Midleton, militis. 
Rogeri Wentworth, arm. 
Roberti Auncell de Grymesby. 
Willielmi Bleseby de Bleseby. 
Thomse Fereby de Burton. 
Johannis Ufflete de Halton. 



Will. Walcote de Spaldyng. Johan. Th8resby de Croxby. 
Thorn. Overton de Swynshed. And. Godehand de Whalesby. 



Hug. Dandison de Wrangle. 
Roberti Hughson de Boston. 
Rich. Whiteb. de Gosberkerk. 
Joh. Docking de Whaploade. 
Will. Calowe de Holbetch. 
Will. Cawode de Whaploade. 
Nich. Gyomer de Sutton de 

Holand. 

Godf. Hilton, militis. 
Johannis Busshe, militis. 
Nicholai Bowel, militis. 
Philippi Dymmok, militis. 
Johannis Gra, militis. 
Johannis Pygot, arm. 
Johannis Boys, arm. 
Galfridi Painell, arm. 
Maunceri Marmeon, arm. 
Willielmi Eton, arm. 
Johannis Markham. 
Johannis Trenthall, gent. 
Thorn. Holme, gent. 
Joh. Saltby de Gunwardby. 
Thomce Repynghale. 
Johannis Hesill de Carleton. 



Joh. Tomlinson de Wotton. 

Roberti Morley, arm. 

Johannis Abbot de Hatclif. 

Johannis Smith de Elkington. 

Abbatis de Neusom. 

Johan. Teleby Canonici ejus- 
dem Abbatis. 

Johannis Cawode de Oxcomb. 

Joh. Langton de Somercotes. 

Wil. Marshall de Somercotes. 

Roberti Pigot de Parva Gry 
mesby. 

Thomee Spaldyng de Claxby. 

Johannis Hamon, parsone de 
Whalesby. 

Joh. Boucher de Tynton. 

Richardi Alesby de Hatclif, 
clerici. 

Rogeri Glaston, parsone de 
Aylesby. 

Rob. Lackwode de Whalesby. 

Johannis Nundye de Whales-* 
by, chapellani. 



WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 



297 



SHERIFFS 
OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 



HENRY II. 



Anno 

1 Rainerus de Bada. 

2 Jordanus de Blossevilla. 

3 Walterus de Amundevel, 

for seven years. 

10 Petrus de Gossa. 

11 Idem. 

12 Willielmus de Insula. 

13 Aluredus de Poiltona. 

14 Philippus de Kime. 

15 Idem. 

16 Walterus de Grimesby. 

17 Idem. 

18 Walt, et Al. de Poilton. 

19 Walt, et AL de Poilton. 

20 Idem. 

21 Idem. 

22 Drogo filius Radulphi. 

23 Idem. 

24 Will. Basset, for seven 

years. 

31 Nigel, filius Alexandri. 

32 Idem. 

33 Idem. 

RICHARD JT. 

1 Nigellus filius Alexandri. 

2 Gerardus de Camvill. 
Roger de Stikewald. 

3 Gerardus de Camvill. 

4 Gerard, et Roger. Stikel- 

ralde. 

5 Idem. 

6 Gerardus et Eustacius de 

Hedenham. 

7 Simond Kimmeo et Pe 

trus de Trihanton. 

8 Sim. de Kime, et Petrus 

de Beckering, et Rober- 
tus de Trihanton. 

9 Idem. 

10 Philip, filius Roberti. 

JOHAN. R. 
1 Robertus de Tateshall. 



Anno 

2 Ger. de Cemvill et Hugo 
filius Ricardi, for six 
years. 

8 Thomas de Muleton. 

9 Idem. 

10 Idem. 

11 Huber. de Burgo et Alex. 

Ormesby (ut Gustos). 

12 Huber. Alex, (ut Gustos). 

13 Hubertus de Burozo et 

Robertus de Aoziulver. 

14 Hub. de Burozo et Rob. 

Aquilum. 

15 Hubertus de Burgo et Ro 

bertus Aquilum, Alex, 
de Puncton. 

16 Idem. 

17 Johannes Marescallus. 

HENRY III. 

1 Will. Comes Saresb. 
Will, filius Warner. 

2 Will. Comes Sarisb. et Jo- 

han. Bonet, for five years. 

7 Steph. de Segne et Radul- 

phus filius Regin. 

8 Idem. 

9 Hugo Lincolne Episcopus, 

et Rad. filius Regin. 

10 Hugo Episcop. et Rad. 

11 Radulph. filius Regin. 

12 Idem. 

13 Idem. 

14 Robertus de Rokefeld. 

15 Walt, de Cuerame, et 
Willielmus de Curum. 

16 Walt, et Willielmus. 

17 Phil, de Ascellus, 

18 Philippus. 

19 Philippus. 

20 Philippus. 

21 Robertus Lupus, for four 

years. 

25 Radulphus Basset, for five 
years. 



298 



WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 



Anno 

30 Willielmus de Derleg. 

31 Willi. films de Curzim, for 

five years. 

36 Gilbertus de Cheile, for 
four years. 

40 Roger. Beler. et Roger, et 

h seres ejusdem. 

41 Williel. de Leverton. 

42 Job. de Cookerington. 

43 Will, de Angieby, et Wil. 

de Notingham. 

44 Hamo Hauteyn. 

45 Idem. 

46 Willielmus de Grey. 

47 Idem. 

48 Idem. 

49 Will, et Rich, de Grey, 

fil. ejus heeres, et Will, 
de Notingham Cleri- 
cus.- 

50 Will, et Rich. Will, et Ja. 

Panton. 

51 Idem. 

52 Jacobus Panton, for four 

years. 
56 Tho. de Bolton. 

EDWARD I. 

1 Thomas. 

2 Thomas. 

3 Richardus de Harington. 

4 Nicolaus de Rye. 

5 Idem. 

6 Idem. 

7 Adamus de Sancto Laudo. 

8 Idem. 

9 Idem. 

10 Radulphus de Arnehall. 

11 Radul. de Arnehall, et 
Walt, de Stuchesle. 

12 Idem. 

13 Idem. 

14 Robert, de Cad worth, for 

five years. 

19 Johan. Dyne. 

20 Idem. 

21 Johan. et Radulphus de 

Trihampton. 



Anno , 

22 Robertus la Venur, for 
four years. 

26 Rad. de Paynell, et 
Rich, de Draycot. 

27 Idem. 

28 Ricardus de Howell. 

29 Hugo de Bussey. 

30 Idem. 

31 Tho. fil. Eustarchi. 

32 Idem, et Johan. Nevill. 

33 Thorn, de Burnham, for 

five years. 

EDWARD II. 

1 Radulphus Paynell. 

2 Idem. 

3 Thorn, de Burnham. 

4 Johan. de Nevill, et 
Rad. de Rye. 

5 Idem. 

6 Johannes. 

7 Johannes. 

8 Tho. de Tittele, et 
Job. de Nevill. 

9 Idem. 

10 Johan. de Nevill, et 
Robertus Stannton. 

11 Robertus de Stannton. 

12 Robertus et Simon de 

Landerthorp. 

13 Johan. de Bella-fide, for 

four years. 

17 Simon le Chamberlaine. 

18 Simon et Reginald, 

Donington, 

19 Idem. 

EDWARD III. 

1 Tho. de Novo Mercato. 

2 Simon Kinardsley. 

3 Tho. de Novo Mercato. 

4 Tho. de Novo Mercato. 

5 Rad. de Santo Laudo, et 
Tho. de Novo Mercato. 

6 Reginal. de Donington, et 
Rad. de Santo Laudo. 

7 Idem. 

8 Johan. de Trehampton. 



SHERIFFS. 299 

Anno Anno 

9 Idem. 23 Saierus de Rochford, for 

10 Rad. de Santo Laudo, et six years. 

Regin. de Donington, 29 Tho.Fulvetby,etSajerusde 

11 Johannes de Bolingbroke, et Rochford, for four years. 
Joh. de Trehampton. 33 Edw. de Cormil. 

12 Gilbertus de Beaved. 34 Idem. 

13 Idem. 35 Johan. de Boys. 

14 Willielmus Disney, et 36 Idem. 

Gilbertus de Leddred. 37 Will. Haudley, for six 

15 Idem. years. 

16 Willielmus Franuke. 43 Tliomse de Fulvetby, for 

17 Johannes de Hundon. four years. 

18 Saierus de Rochford. 47 Willielmus Bussy. 

19 Idem. 41 Johannes Hode. 

20 Johan. de Trehampton. 49 Tho. de Kidale. 

21 Idem. 50 Rogerus Beler. 

22 51 Radulphus PaynelL 

SHERIFFS. 
RICH. II. 

Anno Name and Arms, Place. 

1 Tho. de Kydale . . . Ferriby. 

S. a saltire raguled Arg. 

2 Will, de Spaygne. 

3 Johann. Ponger. 

4 Tho. Thimorby . . . Irenham. 

Arg. three pallets, and four mullets in bend S. 

5 Will, de Belesby . . . Belesby. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three steel gads S. 

6 Johannes Ponger. 

7 Johannes Bussy . . . Hather. 

Arg. three bars S. 

8 Williel. Spaygne. 

9 Johannes Bussy . . . ut prius. 

10 Philip, de Tilney . . Boston. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three griffins heads erased G. 

11 Will, de Belesby . . . ut prius. 

12 Anketin Mallore. 

13 Walter. Taylboys. 

Arg. a cross saltire and chief G. ; on the last three escalops 
of the first. 

14 Johannes Bussy . . ut prius. 

15 Johann. Rochford. 

Quarterly O. and G. twelve bezants on a border S. 

16 Henr. de llecford. 

17 Joh. Cupuldicke . . . Harrington. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three crosses crossed G. 

18 Joh. Skipwith . . Ormsby. 

Arg. three bars G. in chief a greyhound cursant S. 



300 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

19 Joh. Walch .... Grimsby. 

G. two bars gemelles a bend Arg. 

20 Rogerus Welby. 

S. a fess betwixt three flowers-de-luce Arg. 

21 Henricus Bidford, et 
Joh. Litelbury, mil. 

Arg. two lions passant gardant G. 

HENRY IV. 

1 Jo. Cobeldikes, mil. . . ut prius. 

2 Joh. Rochford, mil. . ut prius. 

et Tho. Swynford. 

3 Ger. Soithil, mil. . . Redborne. 

G. an eagle displayed Arg. 

4 T. Willoughby, mil. . Eresby, 

Az. a fret of eight pieces Or. 
5 

6 Thomas Hanlay. 

7 Henr. Redford, mil. 

8 Rad. Rochford, mil. . ut prius. 

9 T. Chauworth, mil. 

Az. two chevrons O. 

10 Joh. Rochford . . . ut prius. 

11 Joh. de Waterton. . . Waterton. . 

Barry of six Erm. and G. three crescents S. 

12 Rob. Waterton . . . ut prius. 

HENRY v. 

1 Thomas Clarell. 

2 Robertus Hilton. 



3 



Arg. two bars Az. over all a flower-de-luce O. 
T. Cumberworth, mil. . Cumberworth. 

4 Nicholas Tournay . . Cainby. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three bulls passant S. armed Or. 

5 Joh. Normanvile. 

6 Thorn. Chaworth . . ut prius. 

7 Rich. Haunsard . . . S. Kelsey. 

G. three mullets Arg. 

8 Robertus Roos . . . Melton. 

G. three \vater-bougets Arg. 

9 Rob. et Tho. Clarel. 

HENRY VI, 

1 Wai. Talboyes, mil. . . ut prius. 

2 Joh. Haytfield. 

3 Robertus Billiard. 

4 Joh. Talboys .... ut prius. 

5 Will. Cupuldicke . . ut prius. 

6 Henricus Retford. 



SHERIFFS. 301 

Anno Name. Place. 

7 Hamo Sutton .... Willoughton. 

Arg. a quarter S. a crescent G. 

8 Will. Hither, mil. 

9 T. Cumberworth, mil. 

10 Rob. Roos, mil. . . . ut prius. 

1 1 Johan. Pigot, arm. . . Doddington. 

S. three pickaxes Arg. 

12 Tho. Darcy, arm. . . Norton. 

Az. crusuly three cinquefoils Arg. 

13 Johan. Cunstable . . Halsham. 

Quarterly G. and Vaire, a bend O. 

14 Robert Roos, mil. . . ut prius. 

15 Thorn. Meres, arm. . . Kirton. 

G. a fess betwixt three water-bougets Erm. 

16 Philippus Tilney . . . ut prius. 

17 H. Willoughby, mil. . ut prius. 

18 [AMP.] Joh. Nevil. 

19 Nichol. Bowet, mil. 

20 Rog. Pedwardyn . . . Burton Pedwardyn. 

21 Johannes Sothil . . . ut prius. 

22 Thomas Moigne. 

S. a fess dancette betwixt six annulets O. 
23 

24 Johan. Harington. 

Arg. a fret S. 

25 Thomas Meres . . . ut prius. 

26 Nicholaus Bowet. 

27 Mane. Marmyon, mil. . Scrivelby. 

Vairy Az. and Arg. a bend G. 

28 Brian. Stapleton. 

Arg. a lion rampant S. 

29 Will. Rither, mil. 

30 Nich. Bowet, mil. 

31 Johannes Nevil . . . ut prius. 

32 Rich. Waterton . . . ut prius. 

33 Hen. Retford, mil. 

34 Joh. Tempest,, mil. 

Arg. a bend betwixt six martlets S. 

35 Joh. Harington, arm. . ut prius. 

36 Ric. Waterton, arm. . ut prius. 

37 W. Skipwith, mil. . . ut prius. 

38 Joh. Marmyon, arm. . ut prius. 

EDWARD IV. 

1 Joh. Burgh, arm. . . Gainsborough. 

Az. three flowers-de-luce Erm. 

2 Tho. Blound, arm. 
3 



302 



WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 



Anno Name. Place. 

4 Will. Skipwith, mil. . ut prius. 

ut prius. 
Harpswell. 



ut prius. 
utyrius. 
Maple-thorp. 

ut prius. 
ut prius, 

Freisney. 



dan. Stapleton, mil. . 

6 Joh. Wichcote, arm. 

Erm. two boars G. 

7 Rob. Cunstable, mil. 

8 Thomas Meres . . . 

9 Ri. Fitz Williams, mil. 

Lozengee, Arg. and G. 

10 Rich. Tempest, mil. 

11 Richard W T elby . . ,. 

12 L. Thornburgh, arm. 

13 Thomas Kyme . . . 

G. a chev. betwixt nine crosses crossed O. 

14 Joh. Villers, arm. . . Leicestershire. 

A. on a cross G. five escalops O. 

15 Th. Wimbech, arm. 

16 Rob. Markham, mil. . Sidebroke. 

Az. in chief O. a lion issuant G. and border Arg. 

17 Tho. Bolles, arm. . . Haugh. 

Az. three cups Arg. holding as many boars heads 
erected O. 

18 [AMP.] Will. Brown. 

19 Tho. Tempest, arm. . . ut prius. 

20 Joh. Bushy, mil. . . . ut prius. 

21 Rob. Talboys, mil. . . ut prius. 

22 Will. Tirwhit, arm. . . Kettleby. 

Gules, three puits O. 

RICHARD III. 

1 Thomas Knight. 

2 Rob. Dymock, mil. 

S. two lions passant gardant Arg. crowned O. 

3 Thomas Meres . . . ut prius. 

HENRY VII. 

1 Thorn. Pinchbeck. 

2 Brian. Standford. 

3 Johan. Copuldick . . ^ut prius. 

4 Tho. Tempest, mil. . . ut prius. 

5 Oliv. St. John, mil. 

Arg. on a chief G. two mullets O. pierced. 



6 H. Willougby, mil. . . ut prius. 

7 Thomas Welby . . . ut prius. 

8 Joh. Skipwith . . . ut prius. 

9 Johan. Husee .... Sleford. 

O. a plain cross V. 

10 W. Shiriolli, mil. 

11 George Taylboys . . ut prius. 



SHERIFFS. 



303 



Anno Name. Place. 

12 Mance. Marmyon . . ut prius. 

13 Tho. Knight, arm. 

14 Tho. Dalaland, mil. . . Ashby. 

15 Will. Ascue, arm. . . . Kelsey. 

S. a fess O. betwixt three asses passant Arg. maned of 
the second. 

16 Will. Tirwhit, mil. . . ut prius. 

17 H. Willoughby, mil. . ut prius. 

18 Rob. Dimmock, mil. . ut prius. 

19 Leon. Percy, arm. 

O. a lion rampant Az. 

20 Will. Ascu, mil. . . . ut prius. 

21 Milo. Bushy, mil. ,: ... ut prius. 

22 Rob. Sutton, arm, . . ut prius. 
23 

24 Will. Ascugh, mil. . . ut prius. 

HENRY VIII. 

1 Rob. Dymock, mil. . . ut prius. 

2 Thomas Parr, mil. . . Noftham. 

Arg. two bars Az. a border engrailed S. 

3 Edw. Guldeford, arm. . KENT. 

O. a saltire entre four martlets S. 

4 Tho. Cheyne, mil. 

5 Mar. Constable, jun. mil. ut prius. 

6 G. Fitzwilliams, arm. . ut prius. 

7 Leo. Dymmock, mil. . ut prius. 

8 Will. Hansard, mil. . . ut prius. 

9 Will. Tirwit, mil. . . ut prius. 

10 Th. Burgh, jun. mil. . ut prius. 

11 Rob. Tirwhit, mil. . . ut prius. 

13 Will. Askue, mil. . . ut prius. 
Franc. Brown, arm. 

14 Andr. Billesby, mil. . ut prius. 

15 Rob. Tirwhit, mil. . . ut prius. 

16 Thorn. Burgh, mil. . . ut prius. 

17 Gilb. Taylboys, mil. . . ut prius. 

18 Will. Skipwith, arm. . ut prius. 

19 Tho. Portington, arm. 

20 G. Fitzwilliams, arm. . ut prius. 

21 Andr. Bilesby, mil. . . ut prius. 

22 Will. Hussey, mil. . . nt prius, 

23 Will. Disney, arm. . . Nort. Dis. 

Arg. on a fess G. three flowers-de-luce O. 

24 Joh. Markham, mil. . ut prius. 
35 G. Fitzwilliams, mil. . ut prius. 
26 Joh. Goodrick, arm. 

Arg. on a fess G. betwixt two lions passant gardant S. a 
nower-de-luce between two crescents O. 



304 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

27 Edw. Dymock, arm. . ut prius. 

28 Will. Tirwhit, mil. . . ut prius. 

29 Job. Harrington, mil. . ut prius. 

30 W. Newenham, mil. 

31 Will. Sandon, mil. 

O. a chief Az. 

32 Rob. Tirwhit, mil. . . ut prius. 

33 Tho. Dymock, arm. . ut prius. 

34 Rob. Hussey, mil. . . ut prius. 

35 Will. Sandon, arm. . . ut prius. 

36 Franc. Ascugh, mil. . . ut prius. 

37 Will. Dallison, arm. . Laugh ton. 

G. three crescents O. a. canton Erm. 

38 Andr. Nowel, arm. 

O. fretty G. a canton Erm. 

EDW. VI. 

1 Edw. Dymock, mil. . . ut prius. 

2 Job. Copledick, mil. ut prius. 

3 Fran. Ayscough, mil. . ut prius. 

4 Richard. Bolles, arm. . ut prius. 

5 Rich. Thimolby, mil. . ut prius. 

6 Will. Skipwith, mil. . ut prius. 

REX PHIL. Ct MAR. REGINA. 

1 Fran. Ascougb, mil. . . ut prius. 

W. Mounson, arm. . . S. Carlton. 
O. two chevrons G. 

2 et 3 E. Dymock, mil. . ut prius. 

3 et 4 Nic. Disney, arm. . ut prius. 

4 et 5 T. Litlebery, arm. . ut prius. 

5 et 6 W. Thorold, arm. . Blanckney. 

S. three goats salient Arg. 

ELIZ. REG. 

1 Rob. Tirwhit, mil. . . ut prius. 

2 Ric. Thimolby, mil. . . ut prius. 

3 Rich. Welby, arm. . . ut prius. 

4 Adlerdus Welby, arm. . ut prius. 

5 Will. Skipwith, mil. . ut prius. 

6 Rich. Berty, arm. . . Grimsthorp. 

Arg. three battering-rams in pale barry Az. armed and 
garnished O. 

7 Tho. St. Pole, arm. . . Snarford. 

Arg. a lion rampant bicaude G. crowned Or. 

8 Rich. Disney, arm. . . ut prius. 

9 Job. Copledick, arm. . ut prius. 
10 Johan. Carr, arm. . . Sleaford. 

G. on a chevron Arg. three mullets Sable. 



SHERIFFS. 305 

Anno Name. Place. 

11 Rich. Bolles, arm. . . ut prius. 

12 Tho. Quadring, arm. 

Erm. a fess engrailed G. 

13 Anthon, Tharold . . . ut prius. 

14 Will. Hunston, arm. 

S. four fusils Erm. a border engrailed Arg. 

15 Rob. Savill, arm. 

Arg. on a bend S. three owls of the first. 

16 Andr. Gedney, arm. . Bagg. Enderby. 

Arg. two lucies saltireways Az. 

17 Will. Metham, arm. . Bullington. 

Quarterly Az. and Arg. on the first a flower-de-luce O. 

18 G. Hennage, arm. . . Haynton. 

O. a Greyhound current S. betwixt three leopards heads 
Az. ; a border G. 

19 Joh. Mounson, arm. . ut prius. 

20 Franc. Manby, arm. . . Elsham. 

Arg. a lion rampant S. in an orle of escalops G. 

21 Tho. St. Pole, arm. . . ut prius. 

22 W. Fitzwilliams, arm. . ut prius. 

23 Rob. Carr, jun. arm. . ut prius. 

24 Daniel Disney, arm. . . ut prius. 

25 Edw. Tirwhit, arm. . . ut prius. 

26 Edw. Dymock, mil. . . ut prius. 

27 Wil. Hennage, arm. . . ut prius. 

28 Barth. Armyn, arm. . . Osgodby. 

Erm. a saltire engrailed G. ; on a chief of the second a lion 
passant O. 

29 Edw. Ascough, arm. . ut prius. 

30 Geo. St. Pole, arm. . . ut prius. 

31 Joh. Markham, arm. . ut prius. 

32 Joh. Savile, arm. . . . Dodington. 

Arg. on a bend S. thjree owls of the first. 

33 Carolus Hussey, arm. . ut prius. 

34 Nic. Sanderson, arm. . Fillingham. 

Paly of six Arg. and Az. ; on a bend S. three annulets O. 

35 Valent. Brown, arm. . Croft. 

36 Will. Wray, arm. . . Glentworth. 

Az. on a chief O. three martlets G. 

37 Philip. Tirwhit, arm. . ut prius. 

38 Johan. Meres, arm. . . ut prius. 

39 Tho. Mounson, mil. . . ut prius. 

40 W. Hennage, mil. . . ut prius. 

41 Rob. Tirwhit, arm. . . ut prius. 

42 Th. Grantham, arm. . Goltho. 

Erm. a griffin segreant, his tail nowed G. 

43 Rog. Dallison, arm. . . ut prius. 

VOL. II. X 



306 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

44 Will. Pelham, arm. . . Broklesby. 

Az. three pelicans Arg. 
Will. Armyn, mil . . ut prius. 

JACOB. BEX. 

1 Will. Armyn, mil. . . ut prius. 

2 Edw. Marbury, mil. . Girsby. 

Arg. on a fess engrailed Az. three garbs O. 

3 Rich. Amcots, mil. 

Arg. a castle betwixt three cups covered Az. 

4 Will. Welby, mil. . . ut prius. 

5 Gerv. Helwish, mil. . . Wortley. 

O. a fess Az. and bend G. 

6 Rich. Ogle, mil. . . . Pinchbeck. 

Arg. a fess betwixt two crescents jess, and as many flowers- 
de-luce G. 

7 Joh. Reade, mil. . . . Wrangle. 

G. on a bend Arg. three shovelers S. beaked O. 

8 Joh. Hatcher, mil. . . Careby. 

9 Rob. Tirwhit, arm. . . Camerin. 

Arms, ut prius. 

10 Joh. Langton, mil. . . Langton. 

Quarterly S. and O. a bend Arg. 

11 Nic. Sanderson, mil. . ut prius. 

12 Ed. Carr, mil. et bar. . ut prius. 

13 Joh. Thorold, mil. . . ut prius. 

14 Franc. South, mil. . . Kelstern. 

Arg. two bars G. in chief a mullet S. 

15 Anth. Thorold, arm. . ut prius. 

16 Edw. Hussey, mil. . . ut prius. 

17 Joh. Buck, mil. . . . Hanby. 

Barry, bendy O. and Az. a canton Srm. 

18 Tho. Taylor, arm. . . Doddington. 

19 Ric. Hickson, arm. . . Ropsley. 

20 Geo. Southcot, mil. . . Bliburgh. 

21 Tho. Midlecot, mil. . . Boston. 

22 Will. Lister, arm. . . Coleby. 

Erm. on a fess S. three mullets Arg. 

CAROLUS I. 

1 Jo. Wray, mil. et bar. . ut prius. 

2 Joh. Bolles, arm. . . . Scampton. 

Arms, ut prius, with a flower-de-luce for difference. 

3 Jac. Brampton, arm. . Touse. 

4 Geor. Hennage, mil. . ut prius. 

5 Wil. Armyn, bar. . . ut prius. 

6 Dan. Deligne, mil. . . Harlaxon. 

O. a bend G. ; a chief cheeky Arg. and Az. 

7 Edw. Ascough, mil. . . ut prius. 



SHERIFFS. 307 

Anno Name. Place. 

8 \V. Thorold, mil. . . ut prins. 

9 Jervas. Scroop, mil. . . Cokerington. 

Az. a bend O. 

10 W. Norton, mil. et bar. 

1 1 Wil. Pelham, mil. . . ut prius. 

12 Edw. Hussey, mil. . . ut prius. 

13 Anthonius Irby, mil. . Boston. 

Arg. a fret of eight pieces S. ; on a canton G. a chaplet O. 

14 Tho. Grantham, arm. . ut prius. 

15 Jo. Brownlow, arm. . . Belton. 

O. an escutcheon, and orle of martlets Sable. 

16 Tho. Trollop, arm. 

V. three bucks passant Arg, maned and unguled O. a 

border Arg. 

20 Thomas Lister, arm. . ut prius. 
22 Joh. Hobson, arm. 

S. a cinquefoil Arg. ; a chief cheeky O. and Az, 

RICHARD II. 

19. JOAN WALCH. Proportion of time and place evidence 
him the same person, of whom I read, in the eighth year of the 
reign of this king, anno 1385. "On St. Andrew s day, there 
was a combat fought in the lists at Westminster, betwixt an 
English esquire, named John Walch of Grimesby, and one of 
Navarre, called Mortileto de Vilenos, who had accused him of 
treason to the king and realm ; in which combat the Navarrois 
was overcome, and afterwards hanged for his false accusation."* 

HENRY IV. 

2. JOHN ROCHFORD, Miles. The same, no doubt, with him 
who was sheriff in the 15th of king Richard the Second. I 
confess there was a knightly family of this name at Rochford in 
Essex, f who gave for their arms, Argent, a lion rampant Sable, 
langued, armed, and crowned Gules ; quartered at this day by 
the Lord Rochford earl of Dover, by the Butlers and Bollons 
descended from them. But I behold this Lincolnshire knight 
of another family, and different arms, quartered by the earl of 
Moulgrave, whence I collect his heir matched into that family. 

Consent of time and other circumstances argue him the same 
with Sir John Rochford, whom Bale maketh to flourish under 
king Henry the Fourth, commending him for his noble birth, 
great learning, large travel through France and Italy, and 
worthy pains in translating Josephus s Antiquities, Polychro- 
nicon, and other good authors, into English. J 

RICHARD III. 

2. ROBERT DIMOCK, Miles. This Sir Robert Dimock, at the 

Stow s Chronicle. f Camden s Britannia, in Essex. 

J De Scriptoribus Rritannicis, Cent. vii. n. 41. 

X ? 



308 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

coronation of king Henry the Seventh, came on horseback into 
Westminster Hall, where the king dined; and, casting his 
gauntlet on the ground, challenged any who durst question the 
king s right to the crown. 

King Henry, being pleased to dissemble himself a stranger to 
that ceremony, demanded of a stander-by what that knight 
said ? To whom the party returned, " He challengeth any man 
to fight with him, who dares deny your Highness to be the law 
ful king of England." " If he will not fight with such a one," 
said the king, " I will." And so sate down to dinner. 

HENRY VII. 

9. JOHN HUSSE. This was undoubtedly the same person 
whom king Henry the Eighth afterwards created the first and 
last Baron Husee of Sleford, who engaging himself against the 
king, with the rebellious Commons, anno 1537, was justly be 
headed ; and saw that honour begun and ended in his own per 
son. 

HENRY VIII. 

16. THOMAS BURGE, Mil. He was honourably descended 
from the heir general of the Lord Cobham of Sterbury in 
Surrey,* and was few years after created Baron Burge, or Bo 
rough, by king Henry the Eighth. His grandchild Thomas 
Lord Burge, deputy of Ireland, and knight of the Garter (of 
whom beforef) left no issue male, nor plentiful estate ; only 
four daughters, Elizabeth, married to Sir George Brook ; Fran 
ces, to the ancient family of Copinger in Suffolk; Anna, wife to 
Sir Drue Drury ; and Katharine, married to ...... Knivet of 

Norfolk, mother to Sir John Knivet, knight of the Bath at the 
last instalment ; so that the honour, which could not conveni 
ently be divided, was here determined. 

KING CHARLES. 

9. JERVASIUS SCROOP, Miles. He engaged with his majesty 
in Edge-hill fight, where he received twenty- six wounds, and 
was left on the ground amongst the dead. Next day his son 
Adrian obtained leave from the king to find and fetch off his 
father s corpse ; and his hopes pretended no higher than to a 
decent interment thereof. 

Hearty seeking makes happy finding. Indeed, some more 
commended the affection than the judgment of the young gen 
tleman, conceiving such a search in vain amongst many naked 
bodies, with wounds disguised from themselves, and where pale 
death had confounded all complexions together. 

However, he having some general hint of the place where his 
father fell, did light upon his body, which had some heat left 

* Camden s Britannia, in Surrey. f In this Shire, title STATESMEN, p. 278. 



SHERIFFS. 



309 



therein. This heat was, with rubbing, within few minutes 
improved into motion; that motion, within some hours, into 
sense ; that sense, within a day, into speech ; that speech, within 
certain weeks, into a perfect recovery ; living more than ten years 
after, a monument of God s mercy and his son s affection. 

He always after carried his arm in a scarf; and loss of blood 
made him look very pale, as a messenger come from the grave, 
to advise the living to prepare for death. The effect of his 
story I received from his own mouth, in Lincoln College. 

THE FAREWELL. 

It is vain to wish the same success to every husbandman in 
this shire, as he had, who some seven score years since, at Har- 
laxton in this county, found a helmet of gold as he was plough 
ing in the field. 

Besides, in treasure trove, the least share falleth to him who 
first finds it. But this I not only heartily wish but certainly 
promise to all such who industriously attend tillage in this county 
(or elsewhere), that thereby they shall find (though not gold in 
specie, yet) what is gold worth, and may quickly be commuted 
into it, great plenty of good grain ; the same which Solomon 
foretold, " He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread."* 



WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE WHO HAVE FLOURISHED SINCE 

THE TIME OF FULLER. 

Richard BUSBY, grammarian, master of Westminster School? 

commonly called the " flogging master ; " born at Sutton St. 

Nicholas, or Lutton, 1606; died 1695. 

Susannah CENTLIVRE, ingenious dramatic writer ; born at Hoi- 
beach about 1667; died 1722. 
Sir Charles COTTERELL, translator of Cassandra ; born at Wils- 

ford; died 1687. 
Thomas COWLEY, benefactor, founder of the free school; born at 

Donnington ; died 1718. 
Dr. William DODD, divine and author; born at Bourne, 1729; 

executed for forgery in 1777 
Thomas EMLYN, persecuted Arian divine and author ; born at 

Stamford 1663; died 1743. 
Matthew HORBERY, learned and able divine, author on the 

"Duration of Future Punishment;" born at Haxey 1707; 

died 1773. 
Cyril JACKSON, dean of Christ Church Oxford ; born at Stam 

ford 1742; died 1819. 

* Prov xxviii. 1 9. 



310 WORTHIES OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 

Sarah JENNINGS, wife of the first Duke of Maryborough, the 

Atossa in Pope s Satire on Women ; born at Burwell ; died 

1744. 

Charles LAMB, essayist and poet; born 1774 : died 1834. 
John NEWCOME, dean of Rochester, author of Sermons ; born 

atGrantham; died 1765. 
Sir Isaac NEWTON, philosopher, astronomer, mathematician, 

&c. ; born at Wolsthorpe in Colsterworth 1642 ; died 1727- 
Simon PATRICK, bishop of Ely, author of Paraphrases and Com 
mentaries on the Old Testament ; born at Gainsborough 1626 ; 

died 1707. 
Francis PECK, antiquary, historian of his native town ; born at 

Stamford 1692 ; died 1743. 
John RASTRICK, nonconformist divine and author; born at 

Heckington 1749. 
Benjamin RAY, miscellaneous writer ; born at Spalding ; died 

1760. 
Robert SMITH, mathematician, author of " Harmonics," 1689 ; 

died 1768. 
Daniel WATERLAND, divine, writer against Arianism; born at 

Waseley 1683 ; died 1740. 
John WESLEY, founder of Methodism ; born at Epworth 1703 ; 

died 1791. 
Samuel WESLEY, brother of preceding, poet, author of "Battle 

of the Sexes;" born at Epworth 1690; died 1739. 
Francis WILLIS, physician, eminent in cases of insanity; born 

at Lincoln; died 1807- 



** Of this county there have been numerous local histories brought out at 
different periods ; and in 1834 a regular history of the county made its appearance, 
compiled by Thos. Allen, in 2 vols 4to, from the various works which had preceded 
him ; amongst which may be enumerated the following : Histories of Lincoln, 1810, 
and 1816. Terra Incognita of Lincolnshire, by Miss Hatfield, 1816. Account of 
the Isle of Axholme, &c. by W. Peck, 1815. Account of Boston, and Hundred of 
Skirbeck, by P. Thompson, 1820. Sketches of the Town and Soke of Horncastle, 
&c. by G. Weir, 1820. Collections foi{ a topographical, historical, and de 
scriptive Account of the Hundred of Aveland, by J. Moore, 1809. History of the 
Town and Soke of Grantham, by E. Tumor, F.R.S. 1806. The History of Crow- 
land Abbey, &c., by B. Holdich, 1816. An Essay on the ancient and present 
state of Stamford, by F. Howgrave, 1726. Antiquarian Annals of Stamford, by 
the Rev. F. Peck, 1727. The Survey and Antiquities of the Towns of Stamford, 
&c, by R. Butcher, 1717. The Antiquities of Stamford and St. Martin s, &c. by 
W. Harrod, 1785. History of Stamford, by J. Drakard, 1822. History of Gains- 
burgh, by A. Stark, 1817. Account of Scampton, by Rev. C. Illingworth, 1810. 
Sketches of New and Old Sleaford, &c. 1825. Account of Tattershall, &c. 
1813. Monumental Antiquities of Grimsby, by Rev. G. Oliver, 1825. 



MIDDLESEX. 



IT is in effect but the suburbs at large of London, replenished 
with the retiring houses of the gentry and citizens thereof, be 
sides many palaces of noblemen, and three [lately] royal man 
sions. Wherefore much measure cannot be expected of so fine 
ware ; the cause why this county is so small, scarce extending, 
east and west, to 18 miles in length, and not exceeding north 
and south 12 in the breadth thereof. 

It hath Hertfordshire on the north, Buckinghamshire on the 
west, Essex parted with Lee on the east, Kent and Surrey (se 
vered by the Thames) on the south. The air generally is most 
healthful, especially about Highgate, where the expert inhabi 
tants report, " that divers that have been long visited with sick 
ness, not curable by physic, have in short time recovered, by 
that sweet salutary air."* 

NATURAL COMMODITIES. 
WHEAT. 

The best in England groweth in the Vale lying south of Har- 
rovv-the-Hill nigh Hessen (where Providence for the present 
hath fixed my habitation) ; so that the king s bread was formerly 
made of the fine flower thereof.t 

Hence it was that queen Elizabeth received no composition- 
money from the villages thereabouts, but took her wheat in kind 
for her own pastry and bakehouse. 

There is an obscure village hereabouts, called Perivale, which 
my author J will have more truly termed Purevale (an honour 
I assure you unknown to the inhabitants thereof) because of 
the clearness of the corn growing therein, though the purity 
thereof is much subject to be humbled with the mildew, whereof 
hereafter. 

* John Norden, Speculum Britannia;, page 22. 
f Camden s Britannia, in. Middlesex. 
J Norden, in his Speculum Britanniae, page 1 1 . 
In the Farewell to this county. 



312 



WORTHIES OF MIDDLESEX 



TAMARISK, 



It hath not more affinity in sound with tamarind, than sym 
pathy in extraction (both originally Arabic), general similitude 
in leaves, and operation ; only tamarind in England is an annual 
(dying at the approach of winter), whilst tamarisk lasteth many 
years. It was first brought over by bishop Grindal out of Swit 
zerland (where he was exile under queen Mary), and planted in 
his garden at Fulham in this county ; where the soil, being moist 
and fenny, well complied with the nature of this plant, which 
since is removed, and thriveth well in many other places. Yet 
it groweth not up to be timber, as in Arabia, though often to 
that substance that cups of great size are made thereof. Dios- 
corides saith, it is good for the tooth-ache (as what is not, and 
yet indeed what is good for it ?) but it is especially used for mol 
lifying the hardness and opening the stopping of the belly. 

MANUFACTURES. 
LEATHER. 

This, though common to all counties, is entered under the 
manufactures of Middlesex, because London therein is the staple- 
place of slaughter ; and the hides of beasts there bought are ge 
nerally tanned about Enfield in this county. 

A word of the antiquity and usefulness of this commodity. 
Adam s first suit was of leaves, his second of leather. Hereof 
girdles, shoes, and many utensils (not to speak of whole houses 
of leather, I mean coaches) are made. Yea, I have read how 
Frederick the second Emperor of Germany, distressed to pay 
his army, made "monetam coriaceam," (coin of leather), making 
it current by his proclamation ; and afterwards, when his sol 
diers repaid it into his exchequer, they received so much silver 
in lieu thereof. 

Many good laws are made (and still one wanting to enforce 
the keeping of them) for the making of this merchantable com 
modity ; and yet still much unsaleable leather is sold in our 
markets, 

The lord treasurer Burleigh (who always consulted artificers 
in their own art) was indoctrinated by a cobbler in the true tan 
ning of leather. This cobbler, taking a slice of bread, toasted it 
by degrees at some distance from the fire, turning many times 
till it became brown and hard on both sides. "This, my lord," 
saith he, " we good fellows call a tanned toast, done so well that 
it will last many mornings draughts ; and leather, thus leisurely 
tanned and turned many times in the fat, will prove serviceable, 
which otherwise will quickly fleet and rag out. And although 
that great statesman caused statutes to be made according to his 
instructions, complaints in this kind daily continue and increase. 
Surely were all, of that occupation, as honest as Simon the tanner 



BUILDINGS PROVERBS. 313 

(the entertainer of Simon Peter in Joppa) they would be more 
conscientious in their calling. Let me add, what experience 
avoweth true, though it be hard to assign the true cause thereof, 
that when wheat is dear, leather always is cheap ; and when 
leather is dear, then wheat is cheap. 

THE BUILDINGS. 

HAMPTON COURT was built by that pompous prelate Car 
dinal Wolsey : once so magnificent in his expenses, that whoso 
ever considereth either of these three, would admire that he had 
any thing for the other two left unto him ; viz. his house-build 
ing ; house-keeping ; house-furnishing. 

He bestowed it on king Henry the Eighth, who, for the greater 
grace thereof, erected it (princes can confer dignities on houses 
as well as persons) to be an honour, increasing it with buildings, 
till it became more like a small city than a house. Now whereas 
other royal palaces (Holdenby, Oatlands, Richmond, Theobald s) 
have lately found their fatal period, Hampton Court hath hap 
piness to continue in its former estate. 

Non equidem invideo ; miror mngis, undique tolls 
Usque aUeo spolinlur agris- 

" I envy not its happy lot, but rather thereat wonder ; 

There s such a rout, our land throughout, of palaces by plunder." 

Let me add, that Henry the Eighth enforested the grounds 
hereabouts (the last of that kind in England), though they never 
attained the full reputation of a forest in common discourse. 

OSTERLY HOUSE (now Sir William Waller s) must not be 
forgotten, built in a park by Sir Thomas Gresham, who here 
magnificently entertained and lodged queen Elizabeth. Her 
majesty found fault with the court of this house as too great : 
affirming, " that it would appear more handsome, if divided 
with a wall in the middle." 

What doth Sir Thomas, but in the night-time sends for work 
men to London (money commands all things), who so speedily 
and silently apply their business, that the next morning disco 
vered that court double, which the night had left single before. 
It is questionable whether the queen next day was more con 
tented with the conformity to her fancy, or more pleased with 
the surprise and sudden performance thereof; whilst her cour 
tiers disported themselves with their several expressions, some 
avowing it w r as no wonder he could so soon change a building, 
who could build a Change ; others (reflecting on some known 
differences in this knight s family) affirmed, " that any house is 
easier divided than united." 

PROVERBS 

"A Middlesex clown."] 

Some English words, innocent and inoffensive in their primi_ 



314 WORTHIES OF MIDDLESEX. 

tive notion, are bowed by custom to a disgraceful sense ; as vil 
lain, originally nothing but a dweller in a village and tiller of 
the ground thereabouts ; churle, in Saxon coorel, a strong 
stout husbandman;* clown, from colonus, one that plough- 
eth the ground " (without which neither king nor kingdom 
can be maintained) ; of which Middlesex hath many of great 
estates. 

But some endeavour to fix the ignominious sense upon them, 
as if more arrant rustics than those of their condition elsewhere ; 
partly, because nobility and gentry are respectively observed 
(according to their degree) by people far distant from London, 
less regarded by these Middlesexians (frequency breeds famili 
arity) because abounding thereabouts ; partly, because the mul 
titude of gentry here (contraries are mutual commentaries) dis 
cover the clownishness of others, and render it more conspi 
cuous. However, to my own knowledge, there are some of the 
yeomanry in this county as completely civil as any in England. 

" He that is a low ebb at Newgate, may soon be afloat at Tyburn."f] 

I allow not this satirical proverb, as it makes mirth on men 
in misery, whom a mere man may pity for suffering, and a good 
man ought to pity them for deserving it. Tyburn some will have 
so called from tie and burne, because the poor Lollards for 
whom this instrument (of cruelty to them, though of justice to 
malefactors) was first set up had their necks tied to the beam, 
and their lower parts burnt in the fire. Others will have it 
called from twa and burne, that is, two rivulets, which, it seems, 
meet near to the place. But whencesoever it be called, may 
all endeavour to keep themselves from it ; though one may justly 
be confident, that more souls have gone to heaven from that 
place, than from all the churches and churchyards in England. 

" When Tottenham Wood is all on fire, 
Then Tottenham Street is nought but mire." 

I find this proverb in the " Description of Tottenham," J 
written by Mr. William Bedwell, one of the most learned trans 
lators of the Bible. And seeing so grave a divine stooped to 
so low a subject, I hope I may be admitted to follow him 
therein. He thus expoundeth the proverb : "When Tottenham 
Wood, of many hundred acres, on the top of a high hill in the 
west end of the parish, hath a foggy mist hanging and hovering 
over it, in manner of a smoke, then generally foul weather follow- 
eth ; so that it serveth the inhabitants instead of a prognostica 
tion." I am confident there is as much mire now as formerly 
in Tottenham Street, but question whether so much wood now 
as anciently on Tottenham Hill. 

" Tottenham is turned French." ] 

I find this in the same place of the same author, but quoting 
it out of Mr. Heywood. It seems, about the beginning of the 

* See Sir Henry Spelman s Glossary. 

f John Heywood, in his 26th Epigram upon Proverbs. J Cap. iii. 



PRINCES. 315 

reign of king Henry the Eighth, French mechanics swarmed in 
England, to the great prejudice of English artizans, which caused 
the insurrection in London, on ill May-day, anno Domini 1517- 
Nor was the city only, but country villages for four miles about, 
filled with French fashions and infections. The proverb is ap 
plied to such, who, contemning the custom of their own country, 
make themselves more ridiculous by affecting foreign humours 
and habits. 

PRINCES. 

EDWARD, sole surviving son of king Henry the Eighth 
and Jane his wife, was born at Hampton Court in this county, 
anno Domini 1537. He succeeded his father in the kingdom, 
and was most eminent in his generation ; seeing the kings of 
England fall under a fivefold division : 

1. Visibly vicious; given over to dissoluteness and debauchery ; 
as king Edward the Second. 2. " Potius extra vitia quam cum 
virtutibus ; " (rather free from vice than fraught with virtue) ; 
as king Henry the Third. 3. "In quibus eequali temperamento 
magnse virtutes inerant, nee minora vitia ; " (in whom vices 
and virtues were so equally matched, it was hard to decide 
which got the mastery) ; as in king Henry the Eighth. 4. 
Whose good qualities beat their bad ones quite out of distance 
of competition ; as in king Edward the First. 5. Whose vir 
tues were so resplendent, no faults (human frailties excepted) 
appeared in them ; as in this king Edward. 

He died July 5, 1553 ; and pity it is, that he who deserved 
the best, should have no monument erected to his memory. 
Indeed, a brass altar of excellent workmanship, under which 
he was buried (I will not say sacrificed with an untimely death 
by the treachery of others) did formerly supply the place of his 
tomb; which since is abolished, under the notion of super 
stition. 

Guess the goodness of his head and heart, by the following 
letters written to Barnaby Fitz-Patrick (gentleman of his 
bedchamber, and brought up with him), copied out from the 
originals by the reverend archbishop of Armagh, and bestowed 
upon me. Say not they are but of narrow and personal con 
cernment, seeing they are sprinkled with some passages of the 
publigue. Neither object them written by a child, seeing he 
had more man in him than any of his age. Besides, epistles 
are the calmest communicating truth to posterity ; presenting 
history unto us in her night-clothes, with a true face of things, 
though not in so fine a dress as in other kinds of writings. 

"EDWARD. 

" We have received your letters of the eighth of this present 
moneth, whereby we understand how you are well entertained, for 
which we are right glad, and also how you have been once to go on 



316 WORTHIES OF MIDDLESEX. 

pilgrimage : for which cause we have thought good to advertise 
you, that hereafter, if any such chance happen, you shall desire 
leave to goe to Mr. Pickering, or to Paris, for your business ; 
and, if that will not serve, to declare to some man of estimation, 
with whom you are best acquainted, that as you are loth to 
offend the French king, because you have been so favourably 
used, so with safe conscience you cannot do any such thing, 
being brought up with me, and bound to obey my laws ; also 
that you had commandment from me to the contrary. Yet, if 
you be vehemently procured, you may go, as waiting on the 
king, not as intending to the abuse, nor willingly seeing the 
ceremonies, and so you look on the Masse. But, in the mean 
season, regard the Scripture, or some good book, and give no 
reverence to the Masse at all. Furthermore remember, when 
you may conveniently be absent from the court, to tarry with 
Sir William Pickering, to be instructed by him how to use your 
self. For women, as far forth as you may, avoid their com 
pany. Yet, if the French king command you, you may some 
time dance, so measure be your meane; else applye yourself 
to riding, shooting, tennis, or such honest games, not forgetting 
sometimes (when you have leisure) your learning, chiefly read 
ing of the Scriptures. This I write, not doubting but you would 
have done, though I had not written but to spur you on. Your 
exchange of 1200 crowns you shall receive, either monthly or 
quarterly, by Bartholomew Campaigne, factor in Paris. He 
hath warrant to receive it by here, and hath written to his 
factors to deliver it you there. We have signed your bill for 
wages of the Chamber, which Fitzwilliams hath ; likewise we 
have sent a letter into Ireland, to our deputy, that he shall take 
surrender of your father s lands ; and to make again other let 
ters patent, that those lands shall be to him, you, and your 
heirs lawfully begotten for ever, adjoyning thereunto two reli 
gious houses you spake for. Thus fare you well. From West 
minster, the 20th of December, 1551." 

"Mr. BARNABY, I have of late sent you a letter from 
Bartholomew Campaigne, for your payment, by the French 
ambassador s pacquet. I doubt not but your good nature shall 
profitably and wisely receive the king s Majesties letter to you, 
fatherly of a child, comfortably of your sovereign lord, and 
most wisely of so young a prince. And so I beseech you that 
you will think, wheresoever you go, you carry with you a 
demonstration of the king s majesty, coming a latere suo, and 
bred up in learning and manners with him, with your conversa 
tion and modesty ; let me therefore believe the good reports of 
the king to be true j and let them perceive what the king is, 
when one brought up with him habeat virtutis tarn clarum 
specimen. This I write boldly, as one that in you willeth our 
master s honour and credit; and, I pray you, use me as one 



PRINCES. 317 

that loveth you in plain terms. Scribled in hast, from West 
minster, the 22d of December, 1551. 

" Yours to use and have, 

" W. CECILL." 

" To the King s Majesty. 

ff According to my bounden duty, I most humbly thank your 
Highness for your gracious letters of the 20th of December; 
lamenting nothing but that I am not able by any meanes, nor 
cannot deserve any thing of the goodness your Highness hath 
shewed towards me. And as for the avoiding of the company of 
the ladies, I will assure your highness, I will not come into 
their company, unless I do wait upon the French king. As 
for the letter your Majesty hath granted my father for the 
assurance of his lands, I thank, your Highness ; most humbly 
confessing myself as much bound to you as a subject to his 
sovereign for the same. 

" As for such simple news as is here, I thought good to cer 
tify your Majesty. It did happen that a certain saint, standing 
in a blind corner of the street where my lord admiral lay, was 
broken in the night-time, when my lord was here; which 
the Frenchmen did think to have been done by the Englishmen; 
and the Englishmen did think it to have been done by some 
Frenchmen, of spite, because the Englishmen lay in that street ; 
and now since that time they have prepared another saint, which 
they call our Ladie of Silver, because the French king that is dead 
made her once of clean silver, and afterwards was stoln, like 
as she hath been divers times both stoln and broken in the 
same place ; which lady was, at this present Sunday, being the 
27th of this month, set up with a solemn procession ; in the 
which procession came first in the morning divers priests of 
divers churches, with crosses and banners, and passed by the 
place where she should stand ; then afterwards, about eleven of 
the clock, came the legat of Rome, in whose company came first 
afore him sixty black canons of our Ladies Church. Then 
came after them one that carried the legatees hat, in such sort as 
they carry the Great Seal in England : then came the master of 
Paris next to the cardinall which carried the image that should 
be set up ; then came the legate himself, all in red, and with a 
white surpless, still blessing, accompanied with the bishop of 
Caen ; and after him came the four presidents of the town, with 
all the councell of the town : also there went before, and came 
behind, divers officers of the town with tip-staves. And so they 
have set her up with great solemnity, and defended her with a 
double grate, to the intent she should be no more stolen nor 
broken ; and the poor people lie still in the foul streets wor 
shipping her. Further, as 1 am crediblie informed, the legate 
that lieth here doth give pardons and bulls daily ; and one of 
the king s treasurers standeth by, and receiveth the money to 



318 WORTHIES OF MIDDLESEX. 

the king s use. Other news I have none. The meanest and 
most obligest of your subjects, 

" BERNABY FITZ-PATRICK. 
" December the 28th." 

" EDWARD. 

" We have received your letters of the 28th of December, 
whereby we perceive your constancy, both in avoiding all kind 
of vices, and also in following all things of activity or other 
wise that be honest and meet for a gentleman ; of the which we 
are not a little glad, nothing doubting your continuance therein. 
We understand also, by certain letters you sent to the earl of 
Pembroke and Mr. Vice-chamberlaine, that you have some lack 
of muletts, and that you desire to have sent to you some of 
ours ; whereupon we have considered, that our muletts, being- 
old and lame, will do you but little service, and at least less 
than good ones bought there. For which cause, we have willed 
Bartholomew Champagne to deliver you 300 crownes by ex 
change, for the buying of your two muletts, over and besides 
your former allowance. Here we have little news at this pre 
sent, but only that the challenge you heard of before your going 
was very well accomplished. At tilt there came eighteen de 
fendants, at tournay twenty, at barriers they fought eight to 
eight, on twelfth-night. This last Christmas hath been well and 
merrily past. Afterwards there was run a match at tilt, six to 
six, which was very well runne. Also, because of the Lord 
Riche s sickness, the bishop of Ely was made chancellor of 
England during the parliament. Of late there hath been such 
a tide here as hath overflown all medowes and marshes. All 
the Isle of Dogges, all Plumsted Marsh, all Shippey, Foulness 
in Essex, and all the sea coast, was quite drowned. We hear 
that it hath done no lesse harme in Flanders, Holland and 
Zealand ; but much more, for townes and cities have been there 
drowned. We are advertised, out of Almaine, that duke Morice 
is turned from the emperour; and he, with the Protestants, 
levieth men to deliver the old duke of Sax and the land-grave 
out of prison. The cause of our slowness in writing this letter 
hath been lack of messengers ; else we had written before time. 
Now shortly we will prove how ye have profited in the French 
tongue ; for within a while we will write to you in French. 
Thus we make an end, wishing you as much good as our selves. 
At Westminster, the 25th of January, 1551." 

" EDWARD. 

" We have received your letters, dated at Paris the twelfth of 
this instant, and also Mr. Pickering s letter, written to our 
trusty well beloved cousin the duke of Northumberland, on 
your behalf; whereby we perceive both the great preparation for 
the wars, which the French king our brother maketh : and also how 



PRINCES. 319 

that you are ill furnished of all things meet to go such a journey ; 
so that he thinketh that your costs will not be borne under 
300. Whereupon we have given order to Bartholomew Cam- 
paigne for to deliver you, in Paris, 800 French crowns, over and 
besides all moneys sent you heretofore ; and besides your diet. 
Also, whereas you seem to find a lack for the moylettis, there 
was appointed to you 300 French crowns for the buying of the 
same, because they could not well be transported. Also order 
is given for your horses to be carried over to you with diligence, 
which, we trust shall like you well. We have no more to you, 
but to will you not to live too sumptiously as an ambassador, 
but so as your proportion of living may serve you. We mean, 
because we know many will resort to you, and desire to serve 
you. I told you how many I thought convenient you should 
keep. After you have ordered your things at Paris, go to the 
court, and learn to have more intelligence if you can ; and 
after to the wars, to learn somewhat to serve us. News 
from hence I shall write you when you send us some; in 
the mean season, none but that (thanks be to God) all is well 
for the present. Fare you well. From Westminster, the 
25th of February, 1551." 

"EDWARD. 

" We have received your letters of the second and fifteenth of 
April ; whereby we perceive then you were at Nancy, ready to 
go together with Mr. Pickering to the French camp. And, to 
the intent you might be better instructed how to use yourself in 
these wars, we have thought good to advertise you of our plea 
sure therein. First, we would wish you, as much as you may 
conveniently, to be in the French king s presence, or at least in 
some part of his army where you shall perceive most business 
to be, and that for two causes : one is, because you may have 
more experience in the wars, and see things that might stand 
you in stead another day ; the other is, because you might be 
more profitable in the language ; for our embassador, who may 
not wear harness, cannot well come to those places of danger, 
nor seem so to serve the French king as you may, whom we 
sent thither for that purpose. It shall be best for you therefore 
hereafter, as much as you may, to be with the French king ; 
and so you shall be more acceptable to him, and do yourself 
much good. We doubt not also but of such things as you see 
there done, you will not fail to advertise us, as you have well 
begun in your last letters ; for thereby shall we judge of your 
diligence in learning, and seeing things that be there done. 
We shall be nothing wearied with often advertising, nor with 
reciting of particularity of things. And to the intent we would 
see how you profit in the French, we would be glad to receive 
some letters from you in the French tongue, and we would 
write to you again therein. We have a little been troubled with 



320 WORTHIES OF MIDDLESEX. 

the small pox, which hath letted us to write hitherto ; but now 
we have shaken that quite away. Thus fare you well. At 

Greenwich,, the third of May, anno 1552." 

> i 

"EDWARD. 

" We have received your letters, dated at Rheims the fourth 
of this instant ; by which we understand how the French king 
doth mean now to set forth a new army to resist the emperor., 
and that for that cause you think you cannot yet ask leave to 
return, without suspicion, till this bray do cease. In which 
thing we like your opinion very well ; and the rather, because 
you may peradventure see more things in this short journey (if 
so be it that the emperor doth march towards you) than you 
have seen all the while you have been there. Nevertheless, as 
soon as his business is once overpast, you, with Mr. Pickering s 
advice, may take some occasion to ask leave for this winter to 
come home, because you think there shall few things more be 
done than have been already, in such manner and form as we 
have written in our former letters. We pray you also to ad 
vertise for how long time you have received your diets. Bar 
tholomew Campaigne hath been paid six weeks agone, till the 
last of September ; and we would be very glad to know whether 
you have received so much at his factor s hands. More we 
have not to advertise you ; and therefore we commit you to 
God. From Hampton Court, the 7th of October, anno Domini 
1552." 

MARTYRS. 

Smithfield, near London, being Bonnets shambles, and the 
bon-fire general of England, no wonder if some sparks thereof 
were driven thence into the vicinage, at Barnet, Islington, and 
Stratford Bow, where more than twenty persons were martyred, 
as in Mr. Fox doth appear. Nor must we forget Mr. John 
Denley, burnt at Uxbridge, who began to sing a Psalm at the 
stake ; and Dr. Story, there present, caused a prickly faggot to 
be hurled in his face, which so hurt him that he bled there 
with.* Now the singing nightingale needed no thorn, but only 
the sleeping one to awake it.f We may believe that this mar 
tyr s prick-son indeed made good melody in the ears of the God 
of Heaven. 

PRELATES. 

RICHARD NORTHALL, was, saith my author, born in this 
county, adding moreover " Preetoris Londinensis, ejusdem cog- 
nominis, ut fertur, filius/ t But take Praetor either for Major 
or Sheriff, and no such man appeareth in Stow s exact " Sur 
vey of London ;" so that one may thence safely conclude the 

Fox, Acts and Monuments, p. 1685. f Pliny s Natural History. 

| Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. vii. n. 6. 



PRELATES SOLDIERS. 321 

negative, no such person in those places, though probably he 
might hold some other eminent office in that city.* 

By the way, the applying the names of Roman magistrates to 
our English officers, wherein every one followeth their own fancy 
in assigning the correspondency, hath caused much uncertainty 
in matters of this nature. But we willingly believe this Robert 
of wealthy extraction, though he became a Carmelite, and after 
words chaplain to king Richard the Second, who for his good 
preaching preferred him bishop of Ossory, for a time chancellor 
of Ireland, t and at last archbishop of Dublin. He wrote a set 
of sermons for the whole year, lived much beloved for his learn 
ing and virtues, and died, no less lamented, anno Domini 1397, 
on the 20th day of July. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

WILLIAM WICKHAM, born at Enfield in this county,! bred 
in King s College, was bishop first of Lincoln, then of Win 
chester, where he may be termed William Wickham junior, in 
distinction of his name-sake and predecessor ; one equal to any of 
his order in piety and painfumess (though little of him extant 
in print) ; superior to all in patience, dying anno 1596 of the 
strangury, when he had not made water for fourteen days toge 
ther^ This mindeth me of an usual prayer amongst the mo 
dern Jews (had they no worse customs their company would be 
welcome unto us), praising God as well for their vents of ejec 
tion, as mouths for the admission of nourishment. 

SOLDIERS. 

FALCATIUS, or FULKE de BRENT, was a Middlesex-man 
by his nativity, whose family so flourished therein in former 
ages (remaining in a meaner condition to this day) that an anti- 
quary|| will have the rivulet Brent, which denominateth Brent 
ford, so named from them ; which is preposterous in my opinion, 
believing them rather named from the rivulet. 

This Fulke was a minion to king John, whose dangers en 
deared martial men unto him ; who, the more to oblige his 
fidelity, gave him in marriage Margaret the daughter of Warrin 
Fitz-Gerald his chamberlain, late wife to Baldwin de Rivers, 
many muttering thereat, and the lady herself (it seems) not 
well satisfied therewith, as beneath her deserts. Hereupon our 
author :^[ 

Lex connectit eos, amor ct concordia lecli, 

Sed lex quails 9 amor quails ? concorclia quails ? 

Lex exlex, amor exosus, concordia discors. 

* As Praetor, Quaestor, Censor, Tribunus, &c. 
f J. Waraus, de Scriptoribus Hibernicis, page 127. 

j Dr. Hatcher s Manuscript History of the Fellows of King s College in Cam 
bridge. 

Godwin, in his Catalogue of the Bishops of Winchester. 

II Norden, in his Description of Middlesex. If Matthew of Westminster. 

VOL. II. Y 



322 WORTHIES OF MIDDLESEX. 

" Now both of them being brought into a bed, 
By law, and love, and concord joined are : 
What law ? what love ? what concord did them wed ? 
Law lawless, loathed love, concord which did jar." 

This Fulke was highly in favour with king Henry the Third ; 
who, by the valour of this his general, obtained the great vic 
tory at Lincoln. 

But afterwards, when the land was settled in peace, Fulke 
found himself less respected, set by, and not sett by, hung up 
like the axe, when it hath hew n all the hard timber, on the 
wall unregarded.* He endeavoured therefore to embroil the 
nation in a new war, and, like a dishonest chirurgeon, wilfully to 
blister the sound flesh into a sore, to gain by the curing thereof. 
This not succeeding (all being weary of civil war), he presuming 
on the king s lenity, and his own merit, (accounting himself too 
high to come under the roof of any law) committed many out 
rages of felonies and murders. He was esteemed too bad to 
live, such his present desperateness ; yet too good to be put to 
death, such his former deserts ; and therefore (as an expedient 
between both) he was condemned to perpetual banishment. 
He went to Rome (none had more need to confess his faults), 
where he lived obscurely, died miserably, and was buried 
ignobly, anno 1226.f 

Sir RALPH SADLIER, son of Sadlier, esquire, was born 

at Hackney, in this county, where he was heir to a fair inherit 
ance. He first was servant to the lord Cromwell, and by him 
advanced into the service of king Henry the Eighth ; a prince 
judicious in men and meat (and seldom deceived in either), who 
made him chief secretary of state,, He was much knowing 
(and therefore most employed) in the Scotch affairs, much com 
plicated with state intricacies, which he knew well to unfold. 
It is seldom seen that the pen and sword, gown and corslet, 
meet eminently, as here, in the same person ; for, in the battle 
of Musselborough, he ordered and brought up our scattered 
troops (next degree to a rout), inviting them to fight by his 
own example ; and so for his valour was made a knight 
banneret. Of these two kinds, one by way of encouragement 
made before, the other by way of reward after, a field victory, 
more safe, and no less honourable in my opinion ; Sir Ralph 
was of the second sort, and the last which survived in England 

" Dr. Fuller, in his Mixt Contemplations, p. 23, of the second numbering, 
has these words, being now set by, laid aside as useless, and not sett by ; whereby 
he makes the different senses of the word to consist in the spelling with one or two 
t s. It may rather consist in the difference of pronunciation, set by and sett by. But 
in truth there is nothing in either the pronunciation or the orthography ; for these 
two contrary senses arise from the same word, and the same pronunciation, and 
very naturally. To set by is to set aside : now a thing may be set aside as useless or 
disregarded, and it may be set by as a thing highly valuable : hence the phrase, little 
or nothing set by, that is valued and esteemed, and much set by. DR. PEGGE. 
t Matthew Paris, in anno 1226. 



SOLDIERS. 



323 



of that order. Yet he was little in stature, tall not in person 
but performance, queen Elizabeth made him chancellor of the 
duchy. During his last embassy in Scotland, his house at 
Standon in Hertfordshire was built by his steward, in his 
absence, far greater than himself desired; so that he never 
joined therein, and died soon after, anno 1587, in the 80th year 
of his age. However, it hath been often filled with good com 
pany ; and they feasted with great cheer by the hereditary 
hospitality therein. 

I must not forget, how when this knight attended his master 
the lord Cromwell at Rome (before the English renounced the 
Papal power) a pardon was granted (not by his own but a ser 
vant s procuring) for the sins of that family, for three imme 
diate generations (expiring in R. Sadlier, esquire, lately dead) ; 
which was extant, but lately lost or displaced amongst their 
records ; and though no use was made thereof, much mirth was 
made therewith. 

CAPITAL JUDGES, AND WRITERS ON THE LAW. 

Sir THOS. FRO WICK, Knight, was born at Elinge,in this county, 
son to Thomas Frowick, esquire ; by his wife, who was daugh 
ter and heir to Sir John Sturgeon, knight, (giving for his arms, 
Azure, three sturgeons Or, under a fret Gules) bred in the study 
of our municipal law; wherein he attained to such eminency, 
that he was made lord chief justice of the Common Pleas, on 
the 30th of September, in the eighteenth year of the reign of 
king Henry the Seventh. 

Four years he sat in his place, accounted the oracle of law 
in his age, though one of the youngest men that ever enjoyed 
that office. He is reported to have died florida juventute, 
before full forty years old, and lieth buried, with Joane his wife, 
in the church of Finchley in this county, the circumscription 
about his monument being defaced ; only we understand that 
his death happened on the seventeenth of October, 1506. He 
left a large estate to his two daughters ; whereof Elah the eldest 
Avas married to Sir John Spelman (one of the justices of the 
King s Bench), grandfather to Sir Henry, that renowned 
knight. 

Sir WILLIAM STAMFORD, Knight, was of Staffordian ex 
traction, Robert his grandfather living at Rowley in that county. 
But William his father was a merchant in London, and pur 
chased lands at Hadley in Middlesex, where Sir William was 
born August 22, 1509. 

He was bred to the study of our municipal laws, attaining 
so much eminence therein, that he was preferred one of the 
judges of the Common Pleas. His most learned book of the 
Pleas of the Crown hath made him for ever famous amongst 

Y 2 



324 WORTHIES OF MIDDLESEX. 

men of his own profession. There is a spirit of retraction of 
one to his native country, which made him purchase lands., and 
his son settle himself again in Staffordshire. This worthy 
judge died August 28th, and was buried at Hadley in this shire, 
in the last year of the reign of queen Mary, 1558. 

WRITERS. 

JOHN ACTON. I find no fewer than seventeen Actons in 
England, so called, as I conceive, originally from ake, in Saxon 
an oak, wherewith anciently, no doubt, those towns were well 
stored.* But I behold the place nigh London as the para 
mount Acton amongst them. 

Our John was bred doctor of the laws in Oxford, and after 
wards became canon of Lincoln, being very able in his own 
faculty. He wrote a learned comment on the Ecclesiastical 
Constitutions of Otho and Ottobonef (both cardinals and legates 
to the Pope in England), and nourished under king Edward 
the First, anno 1290. 

RALPH ACTON was bred in the university of Oxford, where 
he attained (saith my author J) mayisterium theologicum ; and, 
as I understand, magister in theologid is a doctor in divinity, so 
doctor in artibus is a master of arts. This is reported to his 
eternal commendation: "Evangelium regni Dei fervore non 
modico prsedicabat in mediis Romanarum superstitionum tene- 
bris ;" and though sometimes his tongue lisped with the sibo- 
leth of the superstition of that age ; yet generally he uttered 
much precious truth in those dangerous days, and flourished 
under king Edward the Second, anno 1320. 

[AMP.] ROGER TWIFORD. I find eleven towns so named 
in England (probably from the confluence of two fords there 
abouts), and two in this county. He was bred an Augustinian 
friar, studied in both universities, and became a doctor of divi 
nity. In his declining age he applied himself to the reading of 
the Scripture and the Fathers, and became a painful and profit 
able preacher. I find him not fixed in any one place, who is 
charactered, " Concionum propalator per dioecesin Norvicen- 
sem," (an itinerant, no errant, preacher through the diocese of 
Norwich.) He was commonly called goodluck (" and good- 
luck have he with his honour") because he brought good success 
to others (and consequently his own welcome) with him whither 
soever he went, which made all places and persons ambitious and 
covetous of his presence. He flourished about the year of our 
Lord 1390. 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iv. num. 66. 

f Idem, Cent. v. n. 13. t Idem, ibidem. 

Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. vii. n. 17. 



WRITERS. 325 

ROBERT HOWNSLOW was born in this county, at Hounslow, 
a village well known for the road through, and the Heath besides 
it. He was a friar of the order of the Holy Trinity, which 
chiefly employed themselves for the redemption of captives.* 
Indeed locusts generally were the devourers of all food ; yet one 
kind of locusts were themselves \vholesome, though coarse food, 
whereon John Baptist had his common repast. Thus friars, I 
confess, generally were the pests of the places they lived in ; 
but, to give this order their due, much good did redound from 
their endeavours ; for this Robert being their Provincial for 
England, Scotland, and Ireland, rich people by him were affec 
tionately exhorted, their alms industriously collected, such col 
lections carefully preserved, till they could be securely transmit 
ted, and thereby the liberty of many Christian captives effect 
ually procured. He wrote also many Synodal sermons, and 
epistles of consequence to several persons of quality, to stir up 
their liberality. He flourished, says Pitseus, anno Domini 
1430 ; a most remarkable year by our foresaid author, assigned 
either for the flourishing or for the funerals of eleven famous 
writers (yet so as our Robert is dux gregis, and leads all the 
rest) all contemporaries ; whereas otherwise, for two or three 
eminent persons to light on the same year, is a fair proportion 
through all his book " De Illustribus Angliae Scriptoribus." 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

WILLIAM GOUGE, born at Stratford-Bow in this county, bred 
in King s College in Cambridge, where he was not once absent 
from public service morning and evening the space of nine years 
together. He read fifteen chapters in the Bible every day ; and 
was afterwards minister of Blackfriars in London.t He never 
took a journey merely for pleasure in all his life ; he preached 
so long, till it was a greater difficulty for him to go up into the 
pulpit, than either to make or preach a sermon ; and died aged 
seventy-nine years, leaving the examples of his humility, faith, 
patience, &c. to the imitation of posterity ; being buried in his 
own church, December 19, 1653. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

A nameless HERMIT^ (dwelling in the hermitage where now 
the school is) on his own cost, caused gravel to be digged in the 
top of Highgate-hill, where now is a fair pond of water : and 
therewith made a causeway from Highgate to Islington; a 
two-handed charity, providing water on the hill, where it was 
wanting, and cleanness in the vale, which before, especially in 
winter, was passed with much molestation. 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. vii. n. 17; and Pits. 

f These Memoirs are extracted out of the sermon preaced at his funeral. F. 

J Norden, in his Speculum Britannise, p. 22. 



326 WORTHIES OF MIDDLESEX. 



SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

ALICE, daughter of Thomas Wilkes, was a poor maid born in 
Islington., where her cap was casually shot through with an ar 
row without any hurt to her head. She afterwards was thrice 
married to wealthy husbands (\\iiereof justice Owen the last) ; 
and built at Islington, near to the place of her deliverance, a 
proper alms-house, by her well endowed. This lady expended 
to charitable uses, here and elsewhere, what amounted to the 
full sum of two thousand three hundred pounds and upwards ; 
and lieth buried, as I take it, in Islington.* 

Sir JULIUS CAESAR, Knight, was born in this county, his fa 
ther having a house nigh unto Tottenham. t His father was a 
doctor of physic to queen Elizabeth, and descended of the an 
cient family of the Dalmarii in Italy. This his son was bred in 
Oxford ; and, after other intermediate preferments, was ad 
vanced chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and sworn a privy 
counsellor on Sunday the 6th of July 1607, an( i afterwards was 
preferred master of the rolls.J 

A person of prodigious bounty to all of worth or want, so that 
he might seem to be almoner-general of the nation. The story 
is well known of a gentleman, who once borrowing his coach 
(which was as well known to poor people as any hospital in Eng 
land), was so rendezvoused about with beggars in London, that 
it cost him all the money in his purse to satisfy their importu 
nity ; so that he might have hired twenty coaches on the same 
terms. Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam, was judicious in his 
election, when, perceiving his dissolution to approach, he made 
his last bed in effect in the house of Sir Julius. 

He continued more than twenty years master of the rolls ; and, 
though heaved at by some expectants, sate still in his place, 
M r ell poized therein with his gravity and integrity : " Vir tanta- 
rum elemosynarum nori movebitur," (a man of so great alms 
and prayers, made by him and for him, shall not be removed.) 
Nor was it without a prosperous omen, that his chief house in 
Hertfordshire was called Benington ; that is, " Villa benigna," 
(the bountiful village), as one author will have it ; or as ano 
ther "Villa beneficii," (the town of good turns ||), from the river 
so named running by it. What shall I speak of his arms, viz. 
Gules, three roses Argent ; on a chief of the first so many roses 
of the second ; embleming the fragrancy of the memory he hath 
left behind 



* On taking down the old church at Islington, in 1751, the fragments of Lady 
Owen s monument were removed to the alms-houses which she founded. ~-Eo. 
f John Norden, in Description of Middlesex. * Stow s Annals. 

Norden, in Hertfordshire. || Camden s Britannia, in Hertfordshire. 

<[ So blazoned by Peacham, in his " Practice of Blazonry," page 186. 



BENEFACTORS MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

His monument in Great St. Helen s, London, being out of 
the road of ordinary fancies, was thus designed by himself. 

The ensuing description is contrived in form of a deed, and 
imitateth ruffled parchment, in allusion to his office, as master 
of the Rolls : 



" Omnibus Christi fidelibus ad quos hoc preesens scriptum 
pervenerit: Sciatis, me Julium Dalmare, alias CcEsarem, 
Militem, utriusque Doctorem, Elizabethse Reginse Su- 
premse Curise Admiralitatis Judicem, et unum e Magis- 
tris Libellorum, Jacobo Regi a Privatis Conciliis, Cancel- 
larium Scaccarii, Scriniorum Magistrum, hac preesenti 
charta mea confirniasse me, annuente Divino Numine, 
naturse debitum libenter solviturum, quamprimum Deo 
placuerit. In cujus rei memoriam manum meam et .sigil- 
lum apposui. Datum 27 Februarii, 1635." 




Here his seal of coat of arms is affixed, and beneath them is 
written " Irrotulatur Coelo." 

He died the twenty-eighth day of April, anno Domini 1636, 
in the seventy-ninth of his age. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

PETER FABEL. I shall probably offend the gravity of some 
to insert, and certainly curiosity of others to omit, him. Some 
make, him a friar, others a lay gentleman ; all a conceited per 
son, who, with his merry devices, deceived the devil, who by 
grace may be resisted, not deceived by wit. If a grave bishop, 
in his sermon,,* speaking of Brute s coming into this land, said 
it was but a bruit., I hope I may say, without offence, that this 
Fabel was but a fable, supposed to live in the reign of king 
Henry the Sixth. 

.... TRESTRAM was a gardener by his occupation, living at 
Brentford in this county. This man, anno Domini 1609, fell 
into a most violent inflammation of the lungs, accompanied 
with a terrible fever, shortness of breath, stitch of both 
sides, dry cough, and an unquenchable thirst. Doctor Theo- 

* At the funeral of king James. 



328 WORTHIES OF MIDDLESEX. 

dore Deodate,* being his neighbour (then physician to prince 
Henry and the lady Elizabeth) beholding him of a ruddy and 
sanguine complexion, adventured to let him blood, though he 
was of threescore and sixteen years of age. 

Once he let him blood about twenty ounces, by which 
evacuation (his blood being extremely putrefied) he felt ease for 
three hours ; but afterwards all his accidents returned as violent 
as before. 

Next morning he repeated the bleeding in the same quantity, 
whereby the patient only found a momentary ease, his pain 
returning as violent as before. 

The third day, remembering the rule of Hippocrates, that 
blood must be let to the changing of the colour, he adventured 
again on as copious a phlebotomy as before ; whereby the sick 
man found extraordinary ease, who in three days had lost more 
than sixty ounces of blood. 

This Trestram survived eight years after ; and died anno 
1619, a most eminent instance against those who endea 
vour to prove the decay of the world, because men cannot 
spare so much by blood-letting as in former ages. 

LORD MAYORS. 

1. Henry Frowicke, son of Henry Frowicke, of Tottenham, 

Mercer, 1435. 

2. William Marrow, son of Stephen Marrow, of Stebunheath, 

Mercer, 1455. 

3. William Hallin, son of Nicholas Hallin, of Fulham, Fish 

monger, 1459. 

4. Humphrey Heyford, son of Roger Heyford, of Stratford Bow, 

Goldsmith, 1470. 

5. Christopher Askew, son of John Askew, of Edmonton, Dra 

per, 1533. 

6. John Lyon, son of Thomas Lyon, of Peryfare, Grocer, 

1554. 

7. Thomas Curteis, son of John Curteis, of Enfield, Fish 

monger, 1557. 

8. John Jolles, son of Thomas Jolles, of Stratford Bow, Dra 

per, 1615. 

THE NAMES OF THE GENTRY OF THIS COUNTY, 

RETURNED BY THE COMMISSIONERS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF KING HENRY 

THE SIXTH, 1433. 

Richard bishop of London, and the Prior of the Hospital of St. 
John s of Jerusalem ; John Ash, and Richard Maidestone, 
(knights for the shire) ; Commissioners to take the oaths. 

Johannis Harpeden, mil. Thomse Chaleton, mil. a 

* From his own letter, printed in Dr. Hakewill s Apology, p. 242. 



GENTRY. 329 

Johannis Boys, mil. Willielmi Swanlond. 

Henrici Somer. Willielmi Norton. 

Johannis Frampton. Johannis Barnvile. 

Thomse Hasele. Richardi Richmond. 

Thomee; ( .Frowyk. b Roberti Oliver. 

Simonis Campe. Willielmi Bray. 

Alexandri Anne. Roberti Foster. 

Willielmi Wrothe. c Henrici Filingsley. 

Johannis Chichele. Johannis Bronn. 

Roberti Warner. Roberti Charyngworth. 

Johannis Shordyche. d Richardi Skarburgh. 

Edmundi Bibbesworth. Richardi Bronn. 

Walteri Grene. Johannis Elryngton. 6 

Thomse Holgyll. Willielmi Brokherst. 

Thomee Malton. Johannis Danyell. 
Johannis Drayton. 

What is generally true of the gentry in all counties, that, 
being in continue fluxo, 

" Labitur, et labetur, in omne volubilis sevum," 

is most true in this county, where the stream thereof runneth 
most rapid, to make more speedy room for succession ; so that 
the gentry in Middlesex seem sojourners, rather than inhabit 
ants therein. Is it not strange, that of the thirty-three fore- 
named families, not three of them were extant in the shire one 
hundred and sixty years after, viz. anno Domini 1593, as ap- 
peareth by the alphabetical collection set forth by Mr. Norden 
in that year.* I impute the brevity (as I may term it) of such 
gentry in this county to the vicinity of London to them, or 
rather of them to it ; and hope that worshipful families now 
fixed in Middlesex will hereafter have longer continuance. 

a THOMSE CHALETON, Militis. I can hardly believe him of 
the same family, (R being slipped out in the writing thereof) 
with Thomas Carleton, who died anno Domini 1447, being 
buried under a much defaced monument in Edmonton church, 
and whom the inhabitants deliver by tradition to have been a 
man of great command in this county. 

b THOMSE FROWYK. He was owner of Gunnersbury in the 
parish of Great Ealing, wherein he lies buried ; and was father 
of famous Judge Frowyk, of whom before. 

c WILLIELMI WROTH. Ancestor to Sir Henry Wroth, still 
living at Durance, whose great grandfather, Sir Thomas Wroth, 
fled over for his religion into Germany, in the reign of queen 
Mary ; and it is observable that he, who then went away for 

" TnTiis Speculum Britannise, p. 42. 



330 WORTHIES OF MIDDLESEX. 

his conscience, hath alone of all this catalogue his name remain 
ing in this county. As for William Wroth, mentioned in this 
catalogue, he was son to William Wroth, esquire, who died 
the 20th of March, the ninth of Henry the Fourth,* who was 
the son of John Wroth, who married Maud sole daughter 
unto Thomas Durand, by whom the house of Durands was 
devolved unto him. 

JOHN SHORDYCHE. So called from Shoreditch on the north 
of Bishopsgate in London, whereof he was owner, as also of 
the manor of Hackney; I say Shoreditch, so named here (in 
the twelfth of king Henry the Sixth) and some hundred years 
before, quasi Shoreditch, or the ditch that was the sewer or 
public drain to the north-east part of the city. Hereby appear- 
eth the vanity of their conceits who will have it so called from 
Jane Shore (the minion of Edward the Fourth), reported to die 
here pitifully (as much pitied, though not relieved) in the reign 
of king Richard the Third. 

Reader, be pleased to take notice, that though Mr. Norden, 
in his survey of this county, passeth over this surname in 
silence, yet the progeny of this John Shoreditch hath still a 
considerable estate at Icknam therein. 

e JOHANNIS ELRYNGTON. These had a house sometime at 
Neusdon,f in this county, but are since extinct ; and the last I 
find of the name was John Elryngton, filicer of the city of 
London, and keeper of the records of the Common Pleas ; 
who, dying 1504, is buried with an inscription in Hackney 
church. 

THE SHERIFFS. 

Some perchance may expect, that in conformity to other 
counties, I should here insert the sheriffs of Middlesex, reserv 
ing those of London to the description of that city. These 
proceed on an old vulgar error, that the sheriffs aforesaid have 
their several jurisdictions divided accordingly; whereas indeed 
both are jointly and equally sheriffs of London and [sheriff of] 
Middlesex, having not only concurrent but united power in all 
places. Nor know I any difference betwixt them, save that 
he who is first chosen taketh place, and he who liveth the 
nearest to the Tower hath the Poultry, the other Wood-street- 
counter, assigned to his service. But more of them in London. 

All I will add is this : the gentry in Middlesex have herein a 
privilege above any county in England, that they are not eligible 
(except also they be freemen of London) to be sheriffs of this 
shire, which doth cut off from them the occasion of much 
expences. 

" Ex bundello Inquisitionum anno 2 Regis Hen. V., lyim. 4, in Turre London, 
f Norden, p. 37. 



BATTLES FAREWELL. 331 



THE BATTLES, 

Brentford Fight, Nov. 12th, 1642. It began on the south 
west side of the town, near Zion-house : some execution being 
done by great guns, and a boat on the Thames with many 
therein sunk, and Captain Quarles (an active citizen on the 
parliament side) drowned before he could recover the shore. 

Soon was the scene of this tragedy removed to the north of 
the town, near Acton ; and the king s forces fell fiercely on the 
regiment of Colonel Denzil Hollis, then present in parliament, 
and put them to the worst. 

Here the Welch, under Sir Salisbury their leader, 

made true the Greek proverb, o ^tv ywj/ -n-oXiv ^n^Vfrcu, (he 
that flieth will fight again.) These who shewed swift heels at 
Edgehill battle, use as stout arms [as any] in this fight ; for 
formerly they were little better than naked ; whereas, since, 
they had recovered armour to fence their bodies, and resolutions 
to arm their minds. 

Next day, being Sunday, marched out the militia of London ; 
but both armies may be said to have kept the Sabbath, facing 
each other without any considerable action. It is incredible 
how many cart-loads of victuals were carried out from London, 
enough to have feasted their soldiers for some days, and fed 
them for some weeks. In the evening the king s forces drew 
off towards Kingston. 

The number of the slain on both sides amounted not to a 
thousand ; and the reputation of the victory on the king s side 
was more than the effect thereof ; for then the royalists did nose 
and beard the populous city of London, and did triumphare 
(though not in) sub hostico. Indeed the accession of citizens to 
the king answered not rational expectation ; wealth, though 
loyal, being always fearful, and loath to hazard a certain estate. 

This is most sure, that many scores of prisoners taken by the 
king were by him freely dismissed, without other ransom than 
a strict oath to serve no more against him. Now, what oath- 
office is kept in London I know not, nor what Pope therein 
had power to dispense with so sacred an obligation. But these 
met with such confessors, who seemingly satisfied them in the 
violation of this oath, so that some weeks after they appeared 
on the same side as fierce as before. 

THE FAREWELL. 

This county is much infested with the mildew. That it is, I 
know to my cost ; but could not purchase the knowledge what 
it is, much less how it might be prevented at the same price, 
though having diligently inquired into the name and nature 
thereof. 

Some will have it called mildew, quasi maldew, or ill-dew ; 
others meldew, or honey-dew, as being very sweet (oh, how 



332 WORTHIES OF MIDDLESEX. 

luscious and noxious is flattery !), with the astringency thereof 
causing an atrophy on consumption in the grain. His etymo 
logy was peculiar to himself who would have it termed mildew, 
because it grindeth the grain aforehand, making it to dwindle 
away almost to nothing. 

It falleth (be it mist or dew) when corn is almost ripe for the 
sickle, and antedateth the harvest (not before it is welcome, 
but) before it is wished by the husbandman, grain being rather 
withered than ripened thereby. If, after the fall, a good rain or 
strong wind cometh, it washeth and wipeth it off, so that no 
mischief is done ; otherwise the hot sun arising sealeth (to use 
the husbandman s phrase) the mildew upon the straw, and so 
intercepteth the nourishment betwixt the root and the ear, 
especially if it falleth not on the house (which is but another 
case, and hath another tunicle under it) but on the stripped 
straw near to the top of the stalk. 

Grain growing under hedges (where the wind hath least 
power) is most subject thereunto ; though wheat of all grain is 
most, bearded wheat of wheat is least, liable unto it : not that 
the haums thereof are spears to fright the mildew from it ; but 
advantageous gutters, to slide it away the sooner, which stick- 
eth on netted or pollard wheat. 

Inland counties, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, &c. com 
plain the least, maritime the most, of mildew; which insinu- 
ateth the vapours of the sea to be casual thereof. Some hold 
that, seeing it falls from the skies, earth hath no guard for hea 
ven s blow, save prayer, which in this very case is prescribed 
by Solomon.* But others conceive, that human may be subor 
dinate to spiritual means ; to prevent, not the falling but the 
hurting of this dew in such a degree, and hopefully expect the 
remedy from the ingenuity of the next generation. 

I am the rather confirmed in my hopes, because a help hath 
been found out against the smutting of \vheat, at least wise in 
some good proportion; I say the smutting of wheat, which 
makes it a negro, as mildew makes it a dwarf; viz. by min 
gling the seed with lime, as your husbandmen will inform you. 

And for my Vale to this county, I heartily desire, that either 
God would of his goodness spare the fruits of the earth from so 
hurtful a casualty, or put it into the minds of men (if it may 
stand with his will) to find out some defensitive, in some part, 
to abate the malignity thereof. 

* Kings viii. 37. 



LONDON MANUFACTURES. 333 



LONDON. 



IT is the second city in Christendom for greatness, and the 
first for good government. There is no civilized part of the 
world but it hath heard thereof, though many with this mistake, 
that they conceive London to be the country, and England but 
the city therein. 

Some have suspected the declining of the lustre thereof, be 
cause of late it vergeth so much westward, increasing in build 
ings in Covent Garden, &c. But by their favour (to disprove 
their fear) it will be found to burnish round about, to every 
point of the compass, with new structures daily added there 
unto. 

It oweth its greatness, under God s divine providence, to the 
well-conditioned river of Thames, which doth not (as some ty 
rant rivers in Europe) abuse its strength in a destructive way, 
but employeth its greatness in goodness, to be beneficial to com 
merce, by the reciprocation of the tide therein. Hence it was 
that when king James, offended with the city, threatened to re 
move his court to another place, the Lord Mayor (boldly 
enough) returned, " t that he might remove his court at his plea 
sure, but could not remove the river of Thames." 

Erasmus * will have London so called from Lindus, a city of 
Rhodes ; averring a great resemblance betwixt the language and 
customs of the Britons and Grecians. But Mr. Camden (who 
no doubt knew of it) honoureth not this his etymology with 
the least mention thereof. As improbable, in my apprehension, 
is the deduction from Lud s-town, town being a Saxon, no 
British termination. And that it was so termed from Lan 
Dian, a temple of Diana (standing where now St. Paul s doth), 
is most likely, in my opinion. 

MANUFACTURES. 

Natural Commodities are not to be expected to grow in this 
place, which is only the field of art, and shop-general of Eng 
land; Cheapside being called the best garden only by meta 
phor ; seeing otherwise nothing but stones are found therein. 
As for London Manufactures, they are so many, I shall certainly 
lose myself in this labyrinth, if offering to enter. In leaving, 
therefore, all intermediate inventions to others, I will only in- 

* In his adage, Rliodii Sacrificium. 



334 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

sist on the Needle and the Engine, as the least and greatest in 
struments employed therein. 

NEEDLES. 

The use hereof is right ancient, though sewing was before 
needles ; for we read that our first parents made themselves 
aprons by sewing fig-leaves together,* either fastening them 
with some glutinous matter, or with some sharp thing joining 
them together. 

A pin is a blind needle, a needle a pin with an eye. What 
nails do in solid, needles do in supple bodies, putting them to 
gether ; only they remain not there formally, but virtually, in 
the thread which they leave behind them. It is the woman s 
pencil j and embroidery [vestis acu pictd] is the master-piece 
thereof. I say embroidery, much used in former, neglected in 
our age, wherein modern gallants (affecting variety of suits) de 
sire that their clothes should be known by them, and not, as 
our ancestors, they by their clothes, one suit of state serving 
them for several solemnities. 

This industrious instrument, needle, quasi ne idle (as some 
will have it), maintaineth many millions. Yea, he who desireth 
a blessing on the plough and the needle (including that in the 
card and compass) comprehendeth most employments at home 
and abroad, by land and by sea. 

All I will add is this : that the first fine Spanish needles in 
England were made in the reign of queen Mary, in Cheapside, 
by a negro ; but such his envy, that he would teach his art to 
none ; so that it died with him. More charitable was Elias 
Crowse, a German, who, coming over into England about the 
eighth of queen Elizabeth, first taught us the making of Spanish 
needles ; and since we have taught ourselves the using of them. 

THE ENGINE. 

This general word, communicable to all machines or instru 
ments, use, in this city, hath confined to signify that which is 
used to quench scare-fires therein. One Mr. Jones, a merchant 
(living in Austin Friars), fetched the first form thereof from Neu- 
remberg, and obtained a patent of king James, that none should 
be made without his approbation. 

Two were begun but not finished, in his life-time, who died 
in the great plague, primo Caroli Primi; since which time, 
William Burroughs, city founder, now living in Lothbury, hath 
so completed this instrument, that his additions amount to a 
new invention, having made it more secure from breaking, and 
easy to be cleansed , so that, with the striking out of a wedge, 
it will cleanse itself, and be fit to work again in four minutes. 

Since, the aforesaid party hath made about three score of 
these engines for city and country. The cooper, carpenter, 

* Gen. iii. 7. 



BUILDINGS. 335 

smith, founder, brazier, and turner, contribute their skills to the 
perfecting of it. Yet may the price thereof be compassed for 
thirty-five pounds. 

It hath gained, because it hath saved, many pounds, and 
(which is invaluable) many lives of men, in this city.* The 
best (though not the biggest) was lately in the church of St. 
James, Clerkenwell, as hath many times been experimented. 
" A good musician makes a good instrument ; " and it was a 
poor blue-cap (better known by his work than name) who played 
so well thereon, that (though not, with the left-handed Gibeon- 
ites, to hit the mark within a hair s breadth) he could hit within 
the scantling of a shilling. Since a newer at St. Bridget s 
church is a better ; and no wonder if the younger out-active 
those who are more ancient. All wished this engine may be 
brought forth once a quarter, to be scoured, oiled, and trimmed, 
but not to be used. But if there be an occasion thereof, may 
it effectually perform that for which it was intended ! 

THE BUILDINGS. 



ST. PAUL S. 



This is the only cathedral in Christendom dedicated solely to 
that Saint ; great the pillars (little legs will bow under so big a 
body), and small the windows thereof; darkness in those days 
being conceived to raise devotion ; besides, it made artificial 
lights to appear with the more solemnity. It may be called 
the Mother Church indeed, having one babe in her body, St. 
Faith s, and another in her arms, St. Gregory s. Surely such 
who repair to divine service in St. Faith may there be well 
minded of their mortality, being living people, surrounded with 
the an tiperi stasis of the dead both above and beneath them. 
For the present, I behold St. Paul s church as one struck with 
the dead palsy on one side, the east part and quoir thereof being 
quick and alive, well maintained and repaired, whilst the west 
part is ruinous and ready to fall down.f Little hopes it will be 
repaired in its old decays, which is decayed in its new repara 
tions, and, being formerly an ornament, is now an eye-sore to 
the City ; not to say unto the citizens in general, some being 
offended that it is in so bad, and others that it is in no worse, 
condition. 

The repairing of this church was a worthy monument of the 
piety and charity of archbishop Laud ; not only procuring the 
bounty of others, but expending his own estate thereon. We 
despair not but that his majesty s zeal, in commending this 
work to their care, will in due time meet with the forward 
bounty of the citizens. It is no sin to wish, that those who 

In a very fewyears after this was written, the great Fire of London destroyed, 
indiscriminately, both engines and buildings. ED. 

f St. Paul s Cathedral was, soon after, among the dreadful ruins of the city. ED. 



336 WORTHIES OF LONDON, 

have plundered the cloak and cover of St. Paul s (not left be 
hind by, but) violently taken from him, might be compelled to 
make him a new one of their own cost ; at leastwise to contri 
bute more than ordinary proportions thereunto. 

As for the parochial churches in London, they have all either 
cast their skins with the snake, or renewed their bills with the 
eagle, having at the least their fronts beautified, if not their 
bodies rebuilt ; amongst which St. Clement s, Eastcheap, is not 
to be forgotten, the monument of the bounty of Baldwin Ha- 
mey, doctor in physic; so that what is written in a modest 
challenge to the papist, on the entry into the new-built church 
of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, may be inscribed on the rest : " Heus, 
Viator ! anne bonis operibus effcetum est hoc seculum ?" 

THE BRIDGE. 

The middle thereof is properly in none, the two ends in two 
counties, Middlesex and Surrey. Such who only see it beneath, 
where it is a bridge, cannot suspect it should be a street ; and 
such who behold it above, where it is a street, cannot believe it 
is a bridge. It was made with great cost, and is maintained 
with daily charge against the battery and assault of the tide. 
The sad riddle is generally known to all, which happened here 
some twenty years since, when a lamentable fire could not be 
quenched, because there was such store of water, hindering all 
access thereunto. 

THE EXCHANGE. 

This was built by Sir Thomas Gresham, Knight, anno Do 
mini 1571, in imitation of that at Antw r erp, but so that the copy 
exceedeth the original. Queen Elizabeth named it the Royal 
Burse ; but it is commonly called the Exchange, or Change, 
because, by bargains driven there, wares are changed for wares, 
and wares for money, and money for money. Yet, because 
much of mutability is imported in the word Change, it may be 
a fit remembrancer to merchants meeting here, not to build 
their hopes of perpetuity on what is so subject to vicissitude 
and alteration. Well may this place be termed the Change, 
where poor men so soon become rich by good success, and rich 
men poor by losses and casualties unexpected ! 

THE TOWER. 

This, to waive the fable of Julius Ccesar, was first founded by 
king William the Conqueror, finished by William Rufus, encom 
passed with a ditch by William Longcamp bishop of Ely, 
enlarged by king Henry the Third, fortified by king Edward 
the Fourth, beautified by king Richard the Third, repaired by 
king Henry the Eighth ; since whose time no considerable addi 
tion thereunto. The mortar thereof (to make it, belike, the 



BUILDINGS. 337 

more tenacious) was, saith my author,* tempered with the 
blood of beasts ; and this Tower was built to secure London ^ in 
both senses, to awe or defend it, as occasion should require. 
It is a palace, a prison, a liberty, a town, a castle, and what 
not ? most remarkable for the Armory, Mint, Wardrobe, and 
[formerly] the unicorn s horn therein. 

ARMORY. 

I place this before the Mint, because of Solon s speech to 
Cro3sus, that " he that hath the best steel will command all his 
gold and silver." Here many justly admire at the prodigious 
greatness of some ancient corslets, If Tully, seeing a little 
man wearing a long sword, said pleasantly, that he was " alli- 
gatus gladio," (tied to his sword,) surely at the sight hereof, he 
would conclude wearers imprisoned in their arms. This hath 
put men on many conjectures ; some collecting hence the 
strength and stature of the former ages far above ours ; others 
parallel them with the shields left by Alexander to lie in India, 
purposely to possess posterity with an untruth, about the pro 
portion of the persons of his soldiers. If I may interpose my 
conjecture (and if he may speak of John of Gaunt who never 
fought in his armour), I conceive those arms, so signally great, 
not made to march in (as too ponderous for any under a giant) ; 
but to stand therein in a breach, where they might be ser 
viceable. 

Nor can a general diminution of men s strength be justly 
inferred from the disproportion of arms in our and former ages. 
I say general diminution, seeing all ages, even in the same 
country, have produced some of greater, some of lesser dimen 
sions. For, if we compare the common armour used three 
hundred years since (and yet extant in the Tower) with ours of 
modern use, no such sensible difference will be found betwixt 
them as should argue an universal decay. It is confessed that 
their arrows exceeded ours both in bigness and length. But a 
learned authorf imputeth this rather to their continual practice 
in shooting from their infancy, than to their strength and 
stature ; so that it is rather disuse than disability in our age, 
that we cannot shoot the like ; and, since the invention of guns, 
the light use we make of arrows have made them the lighter in 
the making. 

C 

MINT. 

Many of these anciently in most cities, and some towns. 
These afterwards (as so many spangles in one piece of gold) 
were united in the Tower. 

Of late it was much employed to coin the plate of our nation, 
to make state money ; whence one said, 

" Fitz-Stephen, in his Description of London, 
t Dr. Hakewill, in his Apology, p. 22 1. 

VOL. ir. z 



338 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

Ceesaris effigies nulla est, sed imaginis ejrpers, 
Crux duplex siiper est dim, gemensque Lyra. 

And another, 

" May their success like to their coin appear, 
Send double crosses for their single cheer." 

Sure I am, their coin goeth under a general suspicion of being 
as bad as their cause. But I hope hereafter, when the question 
is asked of our coiners, " Whose image and superscription is 
this ?" it will be returned., " The Casar s of England." 

WARDROBE. 

This was not that for the king s wearing apparel, or liveries 
of servants, kept elsewhere in a house so called, in the parish 
of St. Andrew s Wardrobe ; but for vests or robes of state, 
with rich carpets, canopies, and hangings, to be used on great 
solemnities. Here lately was a rich piece of arras, presenting 
the sea-fight in eighty-eight, and having the living portraitures 
of the chiefest commanders wrought in the borders thereof. 
On the same token, that a captain, who highly prized his own 
service, missing his picture therein, complained of the injury to 
his friend, professing of himself that he merited a place there 
as well as some therein remembered, seeing he was engaged in 
the middle of the fight ; " Be content/ quoth his friend, " thou 
hast been an old pirate, and art reserved for another hanging"* 

There were also kept in this place the ancient clothes of 
our English kings, which they wore on great festivals ; so that 
this wardrobe was, in effect, a library for antiquaries, therein to 
read the mode and fashion of garments in all ages. These king 
James, in the beginning of his reign, gave to the earl of Dun- 
bar ; by whom they were sold, resold, and re-resold at as many 
hands almost as Briareus had, some gaining vast estates thereby. 



THE UNICORN S HORN. 



Amongst the many precious rarities in the Tower, this (as ano 
ther in Windsor castle) was, in my memory, shewn to people. It 
belongs not to me to inquire what is become of them, but rather 
to discuss, 1 . Whether there be such a creature as an unicorn ? 
2. What kind of animal it is ? 3. What the fashion and colour ? 
and 4. What the use and effect of his horn ? For the first, 
they produce a weak proof who allege them to be the supporters 
of the Scottish arms, and of the arms of some English gentle 
men, particularly of the family of Paris in Cambridgeshire; 
seeing .most heralds wear the addition of painters, and the fancy 
of painters pretends to the privilege of a lawless liberty. But, 
besides that it is uncivil to give the lie to a common tradition, 
the former existence of such a creature (and surely no species 

* Lord Verulam, in his Essays. 



BUILDINGS. 339 

is wholly lost) is cleared from several places of Scripture : 
" God hath as it were the strength of an unicorn."* " Will 
the unicorn be willing to serve thee ? "t " My horn shalt thou 
exalt like the horn of an unicorn,";); &c. True it is, the word in 
the original importeth nothing of any horn therein (as doth 
the Latin unicornis, and the Greek monoceros). Yet I am con 
fident it is rightly rendered, because it is so rendered ; such was 
the learning and piety of the persons employed in that trans 
lation. 

Proceed we now to the second query, about the kind thereof. 
Surely it is distinct from the rhinoceros (carrying a horn, not 
on his forehead, but on his nose) because the exaltation of his 
horn is not considerable, as not bunching forth much above a 
foot in the prominency thereof. He is commonly pictured, 
bodied like a buck, with a horn advanced out of his forehead, 
some two yards in proportion ; and this his picture confuteth 
his picture, seeing generally he is held to be no beast of prey, 
but which feedeth on the grass ; and if so, his mouth cannot 
meet with the ground ; the interposition of his horn, so fancy- 
fully fixed, making so great distance betwixt them. 

The plain truth is, I, who first questioned whether there 
were any unicorns, am since convinced that there are so many 
sorts of them : the Indian ox, the Indian ass, the oryx, &c. 
famous for carrying one horn ; but which is the prize in this 
lottery I cannot decide, seeing none alive in our land have seen 
a four-footed beast of that kind ; and Julius Scaliger saith truly 3 
" Ex libris colligere quse prodiderunt authores longe est pericu- 
losissimum ; rerum ipsarum cognitio vera b rebus ipsis est/* 

Olaus Worme, one no less a curious inquirer into the mysteries 
than careful preserver of the rarities of nature, physician at this 
day unto the king of Denmark, in a learned work which he 
lately set forth, endeavoureth to prove all under a general mis 
take who fancy a unicorn a fourfooted beast, proving the same 
to be a fish in the northern seas, of twenty-two feet in length, a 
long horn in his forehead (no more cumbersome in the portage 
than ears are to other beasts) ; with which horn he tilteth at his 
prey, and, having pierced it through, doth afterward feed upon it. 

If it be objected to the contrary, that in Scripture he is 
ranked amongst the quadrupeds ; " And the unicorns shall 
come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls ; and 
their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat 
with fatness ;" || it will be answered, that unicorns there are not 
real but metaphorical (rendered appellatively robusti in some 
translations) ; importing that strong enemies, both by water and 
land, shall invade Idumea, to the utter destruction thereof. 

Come we now to the fashion and colour of the horn, conceiv- 

* Num. xxiii. 22. f Job xxxix. 9. % Psal. xcii. 10. 

QIO Reem. || Isa. xxxiv. 7. 



rj O 

Z ~ 



340 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

ing it no considerable controversy concerning the length and 
bigness thereof, quantity not varying the kind in such cases. 
Some are plain, as that in St. Mark s in Venice; others 
wreathed about, as that at St. Dyonis near Paris, with anfrac 
tuous spires, and cocleary turnings about it, which probably is 
the effect of age, those wreaths being but the wrinkles of most 
vivacious unicorns. The same may be said of the colour ; white, 
when newly taken from his head; yellow, like that lately in 
the Tower, of some hundred years seniority ; but whether or 
no it will ever turn black, as that of JElian s and Pliny s 
description, let others decide. 

The last query remains, of the virtue of this horn, which 
some exalt so high, that it is not only antidotal to several ve 
noms, and substances destructive by their qualities, which we 
can command ourselves to believe ; but also that it resisteth 
poisons which kill by second qualities, that is, by corrosion of 
parts ; wherein I concur with my learned author, and doubt 
" such exceed the properties of its nature, and the promises of 
experiment will not secure the adventure ; "* and I believe few 
mountebanks will be so daring as to poison themselves on the 
security of such an alexipharmacon. 

I have done, reader, with this subject, when I have told thee 
that two of my worthy friends (yea, the friends to mankind by 
their general generosity), Dr. Baldwin Hamey, and Sir Francis 
Prugean ; the one had the horn itself, (which to my dim eyes at 
some distance seemed like a taper of wreathed wax), the other 
hath the socket (as I may term it) of the fish, into which this 
horn was fixed. I have heard that, upon experiment, a great 
cure against poison hath been done with some grains thereof; 
and it is improbable that the vigour of nature should extrude 
that so specious to sight, which is not also sovereign to service. 
Since I am informed that the same Dr. Hamey hath parted 
with the propriety thereof to the college of physicians ; and 
they have solemnly presented this unicorn s horn to his ma 
jesty, to supply the place of that in the Tower, which our civil 
wars have embezzled. 

PROVERBS. 
" A London jury ; hang half, and save half."] 

Some affirm this of an Essex, others of a Middlesex jury ; 
and my charity believes it equally true, that is, equally untrue, 
of all three. What gave occasion first to this libelling proverb 
I know not. This I know, reports of this nature, like round 
bodies down precipices, once moved move themselves, and a 
mouse may stir what a man cannot stay in this kind. The best 

* Thomas Browne, doctor of physic, in his " Enquiries into Vulgar Errors," 
B. iii. cap. 23. 



PROVERBS. 



341 



is, though none can hinder a slanderer from speaking, they may 
hinder them from speaking truth. 

This proverb would fain suggest to credulous people, as if 
Londoners, frequently impannelled on juries, and loaded with 
multiplicity of matters, aim more at dispatch than justice ; and, 
to make quick riddance (though no haste to hang true men), 
acquit half, and condemn half. Thus they divide themselves in 
(equilibria, betwixt justice and mercy, though it were meet the 
latter should have the more advantage, and the beam break on 
the pitiful side. Others extend this proverb also to their arbi 
trations betwixt party and party ; as if, not minding the merits 
of the cause, they cleave the thing controverted into equal 
moieties betwixt plaintiff and defendant. 

The falseness of these suggestions will appear to such who, 
by perusing history, do discover the London jurors most con 
scientious in proceeding secundum allegata et probata, always 
inclining to the merciful side in saving life, when they can find 
any cause or colour for the same ; and amongst many thousands 
take two most memorable instances, 

The first, Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, who, on the 17th of 
April 1554, was (in the reign of queen Mary) arraigned for 
high treason in Guildhall, before Sir Thomas White, lord 
mayor, the earls of Shrewsbury and Derby, Sir Thomas Brom 
ley, lord chief justice, &c. Mr. Edward Griffin, the attorney- 
general, pressed the prisoner very sorely for his correspondence 
with the Carews in the west, and his being privy to the rising 
of Sir Thomas Wyat. Sir Nicholas pleaded many hours for 
himself, no less stoutly than wisely, yet with due submission to 
the court, till at last his jury passed upon him ; whose names, 
ad perpetuam rei memoriam, are here inserted : 1 . Wheston ; 
2. Lucar; 3. Yoong ; 4. Martin; 5. Beswik ; 6. Barscarfeld ; 
7- Kightleie; 8. Low; 9. Painter; 10. Banks; 11. Calthrop ; 
12. Cater,* 

These acquitted the prisoner ; and though much menaced by 
the court, stood stoutly to their verdict, for which they were all 
imprisoned, five of them finedf and paid 260/. a-piece, the rest 
lower sums ; and, after their discharge from durance, com 
manded to attend the council-table at an hour s warning.^ 

The other is of a person who was lately arraigned in Guild 
hall, and whom I list not to name ; partly because he is easily 
guessed ; partly because he was of so turbulent a spirit, that his 
name would set all my book at dissension. He, being charged 
with what concerned his life, was, by an uncorrupted jury, 
though heavily pressed to the contrary, clearly acquitted ; and 
one passage (omitted in his printed trial) I must here insert. 

Speaking his farewell to the jury, now ready to depart the 
bar, he requested them to remember a statute in the reign of 
king Henry the Seventh, as making much in his behalf. " Sir- 

* Holinshed s Chronicle, p. 1105. f Idem, p. 1126. 

J Stow s Chronicle, page 624, who saith they were fined 500/. a-piece. 



342 WORTHIES OF 1.ONDON. 

rah," said one judge on the bench to this prisoner, " I know 
that statute better than you do." To whom he calmly replied, 
" I believe you, Sir ! but I desire that these gentlemen of the 
jury should understand it but as well as I do." And so it 
seems they did, for his life was saved thereby. 

"A fool will not part with his bauble for the Tower of London." 

This Tower anciently was, and in part still is, the magazine of 
England s wealth. There the silver, the mint of money ; and 
there the brass and iron to defend it, the armory and store 
house of ordnance ; yet fools so doat on their darling fancies, 
that they prize them above all this treasure. But, alas ! " quod 
scribimus et legimus, et ridemus, hoc facimus, (we do our 
selves what we deride in others.) Everv one is addicted to 

J 

some vanity or other, which he will not part with on any 
conditions, so weak and wilful we are by nature. He that 
will not freely and sadly confess that he is much a fool, is all a 
fool. 

" London lick-penny."] 

The countryman coming up hither, by his own experience, 
will easily expound the meaning thereof. The best is, it is also 
London get-penny, to those who live here, and carefully follow 
their vocations. 

" London Cockneys. 

Let us observe, first, the antiquity of this Proverb, then the 
meaning ; lastly, the application thereof to Londoners. It is 
more than four hundred years old ; for, when Hugh Bigot added 
artificial fortifications to the natural strength of his castle at 
Bungay in Suffolk, he gave out this rhyme, therein vaunting it 
for impregnable : 

" Were I in my castle of Bungey, 
Upon the river of Waveney, 
I would not care for the king of Cockeney."* 

Meaning thereby king Henry the Second, then peaceably pos 
sessed of London, whilst some other places did resist him; 
though afterwards he so humbled this Hugh, that he was fain, 
with large sums of money and pledges for his loyalty, to redeem 
this his castle from being razed to the ground. 

I meet with a double sense of this word Cockney : some tak 
ing it for, 1. One coaks d or cocker d (made a wanton ornestle- 
cock of, delicately bred and brought up), so that when grown 
men or women they can endure no hardship, nor comport 
with pains-taking. 2. One utteily ignorant of husbandry or 
housewifery, such as is practised in the country, so that they 
may be persuaded any thing about rural commodities ; and 
the original thereof, and the tale of the citizen s son, who knew 
not the language of a cock, but called it neighing, is commonly 
known. 

Here I take no notice of his fancy who will have it called 

* Camden s Britannia, in Suffolk. 



PROVERBS. 343 

Cockney by transposition, <( quasi incoct" (raw and rude*), as 
forced and far-fetched. 

The name is generally fixed on such who are born within the 
sound of Bow-bell, and are tender enough, and sufficiently ig 
norant in country businesses. One merrily persuaded a she-citi 
zen, that, seeing malt did not grow, the good housewives in the 
country did spin it ; (t I knew as much/ said the Cockney, " for 
one may see the threads hang out at the ends thereof." How 
ever, be it known unto all people, that as there are delicate and 
silly folk in the country ; so are there as hardy men and skilful 
housewives in the city ; no disparagement to any of what place 
soever. 

" An ill word meets another, and it were at the Bridge of London."] 

This is a Scottish proverb, f and indeed a Scottish text needs 
a Scottish comment thereon. However, I thus guess at the 
meaning thereof: London-bridge is notoriously known for a 
narrow pass and numerous passengers ; so that, people meeting 
thereon, a quarrel will quickly be engendered, if one of them 
hath not the wit or patience to step into a shop if on foot, if on 
horseback to stay in the void places. Thus words quickly in 
flame a difference, except one of the parties have the discretion 
of silence, yielding, or departure. 

" Billingsgate language."] 

Billings was formerly a gate, though now rather portus than 
porta, being the prime landing-place, and market for some sea 
commodities. Now, although as fashionable people live 
there as elsewhere in the city, yet much rude folk repair thither ; 
so that one may term this the Esculine Gate of London, from the 
dross and dregs of the baser people flocking thither. Here one 
may hear linguas jurgatrices : yea, shrewd words are sometimes 
improved into smart blows betwixt them. I doubt not but 
that Rome, Venice, Paris, and all populous cities, have their 
Billingsgate language in those places where rude people make 
their rendez-vous. 

" Kirbie s castle, and Megse s glory, 
Spinola s pleasure, and Fisher s folly."] 

These were four houses about the city, built by citizens, large 
and sumptuous above their estates, whose memories are likely 
longer to continue by this rhyme than by their own pompous 
buildings. 

The first of these is so uncastled, the glory of the second so 
obscured, that very few know (and it were needless to tell them) 
where these houses were fixed. 

As for Spinola (a Genoan, made free-denizen) the master and 
fellows of a college in Cambridge know too well what he was, 
by their expensive suit, known to posterity by Magdalen Col 
lege case. If his own country (I mean the Italian) curse did 

* Minsew s Dictionary, in the word Cockney. 

*t" Proverb by David Ferauson, minister at Dunfermline. 



344 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

overtake him, and if the plague of building did light upon him, 
few, I believe, did pity him. 

As for the last, it was built oy Jasper Fisher, free of the 
Goldsmiths, one of the six clerks in chancery, and a justice of 
peace, who, being a man of no great wealth (as indebted to 
many), built here a beautiful house, with gardens of pleasure, 
and bowling-alleys about it, called Devonshire House at this 
day.* 

However, it seems this was an ancient vanity, even in the 
days of king David : " Their inward thought is, that their 
houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all 
generations. They call their lands after their own names."f 

" He will follow him like a St. Anthony s pig."] 

St. Anthony is notoriously known for the patron of hogs, 
having a pig for his page in all pictures, though for what reason 
unknown, except, because being an hermit, and having a cell or 
hole digged in the earth, and having his general repast on roots, 
he and hogs did in some sort intercommon both in their diet 
and lodging. 

There was a fair hospital built to the honour of St. Anthony, 
in Bennet s Fink in this city ; the protectors and proctors 
whereof claimed a privilege to themselves, to garble the live 
pigs in the markets of the city ; and such as they found starved, 
or otherwise unwholesome for man s sustenance, they would slit 
in the ear, tie a bell about their necks, and let them loose about 
the city .J 

None durst hurt or take them up (having this livery of St. 
Anthony upon them) ; but many would give them bread, and 
feed them in their passage, whom they used to follow whining 
after them. But, if such pigs proved fat, and well liking (as 
often they did), the officers of St. Anthony s hospital would 
seize on them for their own use. 

The proverb is appliable to such who have servile saleable 
souls, who, for a small reward, will lacquey many miles, press 
ing their patrons with their unwelcome importunity. 

" He was born within the sound of Bow-bell."] 

This is perhaps the periphrasis of a Londoner at large, born 
within the suburbs thereof; the sound of this bell exceeding 
the extent of the lord mayor s mace. It is called Bow-bell, be 
cause hanging in the steeple of Bow-church ; and Bow-church 
because built upon bows or arches. John Dun, mercer, gave, 
in 1472, two tenements to maintain the ringing of this bell 
nightly at nine o clock, which sounded to servants a retreat from 
their work, and a march to their supper and bed ; and there 
fore conceived by some masters to ring too soon, by most 
apprentices too late. William Copland, the king s merchant, 
about the year 1520, gave a bigger bell for the same purpose, 

* Stow s Survey, p. 175. f Psalm xlixv 1 1 . 

J Stow s Survey of London, p. 190. Idem, p. 269. 



PROVERBS. 345 

and had the hansel thereof himself, being first rung as a knell 
at his burial. 

" St. Peter s in the poor, 

Where no tavern, alehouse, or sign at the door. 1 ] 

Under correction, I conceive it called " in the poor," because 
the Augustinian friars, professing wilful poverty, for some hun 
dred of years, possessed more than a moiety thereof. But, as 
one gave for his motto, " Malim dives esse quam haberi/ this 
parish may say, " Malim pauper vocari quam esse " which 
ever was (not to say is) one of the richest in London ; which 
their signless houses do avouch, being a sign of the eminency 
of their inhabitants, ubi quisque sui ipsius index, sufficiently noti 
fied and distinguished by themselves. 

How ancient the use of signs in this city on private houses, 
is to me unknown. Sure I am, it was generally used in the 
reign of king Edward the Fourth ; witness that dear jest of a 
well-meaning citizen, who lost his life in those dangerous times 
for saying " he would leave the crown to his son." 

I suspect this proverb is lately a little discomposed, and that 
some public houses for entertainment have stept or crept into 
this parish. 

" To dine with Duke Humphrey."] 

This proverb hath altered the original meaning thereof ; for 
first it signified aliena vivere quadra, to eat by the bounty or 
feed by the favour of another man ; for Humphrey duke of 
Gloucester (commonly called the good duke) was so hospitable, 
that every man of fashion, otherwise unprovided, was welcome 
to dine with him : it not being so proper for strangers to sup 
in those days with the greatest housekeepers. The said duke 
was so bountiful, that his alms-dish of silver was very massy 
when empty (what then when full?) which alms-dish came 
afterwards into the possession of the duke of Somerset, who 
sent it to lord Rivers, to sell the same, to furnish himself for 
a sea-voyage.* 

But, after the death of good Duke Humphrey (when many 
of his former alms-men were at a loss for a meal s meat), 
this proverb did alter its copy ; to dine with duke Humphrey 
importing to be dinnerless. 

A general mistake fixed this sense ; namely, that Duke Hum 
phrey was buried in the body of St. Paul s church, where many 
men chew their meat with feet, and walk away the want of 
a dinner ;f whereas indeed that noble person interred in St. 
Paul s was Sir John Beauchamp, constable of Dover,J warden 
of the Cinque Ports, knight of the Garter, son to Guy earl of 
Warwick, and brother to Thomas earl of Warwick ; whilst 
Duke Humphrey was honourably buried at St. Alban s. 

* Stow s Survey of London, p. 75. 

t Old St. Paul s church was then a public walk ED. 

J Stow s Survey of London, p. 368. 



346 



WORTHIES OF LONDON. 



" I will use you as bad as a Jew."] 

I am sure I have carried the child home, and laid it at 
the father s house, having traced this proverb by the tract from 
England in general to London, thence to the Old Jewry, whence 
it had its first original ; that poor nation (especially on Shrove 
Tuesday) being intolerably abused by the English, whilst they 
lived in the land. 

I could wish, that wheresoever Jews live, they may not find 
so much courtesy as to confirm them in their false, yet not so 
much cruelty as to discourage them from the true, religion ; till 
which time I can bemoan their misery, condemn the Christian s 
cruelty, and admire God s justice in both. 

See we it here now fulfilled, which God long since frequently 
foretold,* and threatened ; namely that he would make " the 
Jews become a proverb," if continuing rebellious against him. I 
pass not for the flouts of profane Pagans, scoffing at the Jew s 
religion, " Credat Judeeus Apella ; "f but to behold them thus 
proverbiascere, for their rebellions against God, minds me of 
the performance of God s threatening unto them. 

" Good manners to except my lord mayor of London. "] 

This is a corrective for such, whose expressions are of the 
largest size, and too general in their extent, parallel to the logic 
maxim, " Primum in unoquoque genere est excipiendum," as 
too high to come under the roof of comparison. In some 
cases, it is not civil to fill up all the room in our speeches of 
ourselves, but to leave an upper place void, as a blank reserved 
for our betters. 

" I have dined as well as my lord mayor of London."] 
That this proverb may not cross the former, know, that as 
well is not taken for as dubiously or daintily, on variety of 
costly dishes, in which kinds the lord mayor is paramount for 
magnificence ; for (not to speak of his solemn invitations, as 
when Henry Pickard, lord mayor, 1357, did in one day enter 
tain a mess of kings,! Edward king of England, John king of 
France, David king of Scots, and the king of Cyprus, besides 
Edward prince of Wales, and many prime noblemen of the 
land,) his daily dinners are feasts, both for plenty, guests, and 
attendants. But the proverb hath its modest meaning ; " I 
have dined as well," that is, as comfortably, % as contentedly, 
according to the rule, " satis est quod sufficit," (enough is as 
good as a feast), and better than a surfeit ; and indeed nature 
is contented with a little, and grace with less. 
" As old as Paul s steeple."] 

Different are the dates of the age thereof, because it had 
two births or beginnings; for, if we count it from the time 
wherein it was originally co-founded by king Ethelbert, with 
the body of the church, anno 1610, then it is above a thou- 

, * 

* Deut. xxviii. 37. 1 Kings ix. 7. Jer. xxix. 9. f Horace s Satires. 

+ Stow s Survey of London, p. 87. 



PROVERBS. 347 

sand and forty years of age. But, if we reckon it from the year 
1087, when burnt with lightning from heaven, and afterwards 
rebuilt by the bishops of London, it is not above five hundred 
years old. And though this proverb falls far short of the Latin 
ones, " Antiquius Arcadibus, antiquius Saturno ;" yet serveth it 
sufficiently to be returned to such, who pretend those things 
to be novel, which are known to be stale, old, and almost anti 
quated. 

" He is only fit for Ruffian s-hall."] 

A ruffian is the same with a swaggerer, so called because 
endeavouring to make that side to swag or weigh down, 
whereon he engageth. The same also with swash-buckler, from 
swashing, or making a noise on bucklers. West Smith-field 
(now the horse-market) was formerly called RuffianVhall, where 
such men met casually and otherwise, to try masteries with 
sword and buckler.* More were frighted than hurt, hurt than 
killed, therewith, it being accounted unmanly to strike beneath 
the knee, because in effect it was as one armed against a naked 
man. But, since that desperate traitor Rowland Yorke first 
used thrusting with rapiers, swords and bucklers are disused,f 
and the proverb only appliable to quarrelsome people (not tame, 
but wild barreters) who delight in brawls and blows. 

" A loyal heart may be landed under Traitors Bridge."] 

This is a bridge under which is an entrance into the Tower 
(over against Pink-gate), formerly fatal to those who landed 
there, there being a muttering that such never came forth alive, 
as dying (to say no worse) therein, without any legal trial. The 
proverb importeth, that passive innocence, overpowered with 
adversaries, may be accused without cause, and disposed at the 
pleasure of others ; it being true of all prisoners, what our 
Saviour said to and of St. Peter, " Another shall carry thee 
whither thou wouldst not/ J 

Queen Elizabeth may be a proof hereof, who, in the reign of 
queen Mary her sister, first staid, and denied to land at those 
stairs, where all traitors and offenders customably used to land, 
till a lord (which my author would not, and I cannot name) told 
her " she should not choose " and so she was forced accord 
ingly^ 

" To cast water into the Thames."] 

That is, to give to them who had plenty before; which not 
withstanding is the dole general of the world. Yet let not 
Thames be proud of his full and fair stream, seeing water may 
be wanting therein, as it was anno 1158, the fourth of William 
Rufus,|| when men might walk over dryshod ; and again anno 

* Continuer of Stow s Annals, p. 1024. 

f Camden s Britannia, in anno 1587. % John xxi. 18. 

Fox, Acts and Monuments, p. 2092. 

|| Stow s Chronicle, in anno notato. 



348 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

1582, a strong wind lying west and by south, which forced out 
the fresh and kept back the salt-water.* 

" He must take him a house in Turn-again Lane."f] 

This, in old records, is called Wind-again Lane,J and lieth 
in the parish of St. Sepulchre s, going down to Fleet-dike ; 
which men must turn again the same way they came, for there 
it is stopped. The proverb is applied to those, who, sensible 
that they embrace destructive courses, must seasonably alter 
their manners, which they may do without any shame to them 
selves ; it is better to come back through Turn-again (though a 
narrow and obscure) lane, than to go (on an ill account) straight 
forwards in a fair street hard by, whence " vestigia nulla re- 
trorsum," as leading westward to execution. 

" He may whet his knife on the threshold of the Fleet."] 

The Fleet is a place notoriously known for a prison, to which 
many are committed for their contempts,j| more for their debts ; 
so called it is from a brook running by, as that (of Tigris in 
Armenia) from its former fleetness, though now it creepeth slow 
enough ; not so much for age, as the injection of city excre 
ments wherewith it is so obstructed. 

The proverb is appliable to those who never owed ought ; or 
else, having run into debt, have crept out of it ; so that now they 
may defy danger and arrests ; yea, may triumphare in hostico, 
laugh in the face of the Serjeants. Surely the threshold of the 
Fleet, so used, setteth a good edge on the knife, and a better on 
the wearer thereof, actuating him with a spirit free from all en 
gagements. 

" All goeth down Gutter-lane."] 

There is a small lane (inhabited anciently by gold-beaters) 
leading out of Cheapside, east of Foster-lane, which orthography 
presents to the reader by the name of Guthurun-l&ne, from him 
the once owner thereof.^ But common people (we must speak 
with the volge, and think with the wise) call it Guttur-lane, 
pleading for their mis-pronouncing it, that the narrow form 
thereof is like the throat or gullet, and such a one would have 
pleased Apicius the epicure, who wished to himself tricubitale 
guttur. 

The proverb is appliable to those who spend all in drunken 
ness and gluttony, mere belly-gods, whom the philosopher* 
called yacT7-p</zd,oyoi;e. I confess the word, both in sound and 

* Stow s Chronicle, in anno notato. 

t J- Heywood, in his Epigrams, num. 69. 

j Stow s Survey of London, p. 427. 

The whole neighbourhood has since been so completely metamorphosed, that 
to a modern resident these allusions would be unintelligible ; Fleet Dike, which was 
formerly navigable as far as Holborn-hill, having been long covered over. Many 
other allusions of Fuller, from local alterations, are equally obscure. ED. 

|| It is now the prison of the Court of Chancery ED. 

If Stow s Survey of London, p. 338. ** Aristotle, Moral, 1. 3. 



PROVERBS. 349 

sense, hath some affinity with that of St. Paul s of the Cretians, 
yn<rrgpe apyai, (idle-bellies ;*) save that our gastrimargi are far 
worse, so named from the mere madness and distraction of their 
appetite. 

" As lame as St. Giles Cripple-gate."] 

St. Giles was by birth an Athenian, of noble extraction and 
great estate, but quitted all for a solitary life. He was visited 
with a lameness (whether natural or casual I know not) ; but 
the tradition goes, that he desired not to be healed thereof for 
his greater mortification : if so, his judgment differed from all 
the good lame men in the Gospel, importunate for ease from 
their infirmity. He is accounted the patron of cripples ; and 
whereas churches dedicated to other saints of better footman- 
ship get the speed of him, and come into the city, generally 
lame St. Giles laggeth behind in the suburbs, as in London, 
Cambridge, Salisbury, &c. 

Cripplegate was so called before the Conquest,! from cripples 
begging of passengers therein. And indeed they may prescribe 
for their custom, ever since the lame man begged an alms of 
Peter and John at the beautiful gate of the Temple. J 

This proverb may seem guilty of false heraldry, lameness on 
lameness ; and, in common discourse, is spoken rather merrily 
than mournfully, of such who for some light hurt lag behind, 
and sometimes is applied to those who out of laziness (none so 
lame as they that will not go) counterfeit infirmity. 
" You are all for the Hoistings, or Hustings."] 

It is spoken of those who by pride or passion are mounted or 
elated to a pitch above the due proportion of their birth, 
quality, or estate ; such as are all in altitudinibus, so that com 
mon persons know not how to behave themselves unto them. 
It cometh from the hustings, the principal and highest court in 
London (as also in Winchester, Lincoln, York, &c.), so called 
from the French word haulser, to raise or lift up. 

The mention of the Hustings, a court so called, mindeth me 
of another court, called the Court of Hall-mote; and I am 
resolved to run the hazard of the reader s anger with this my 
digression, to rectify a mistake in some, and prevent it in others. 

" This is derived of hall and mote, as much as to say, the 
hall court, i. e. conventus civium in aulam publicam ; every 
company in London having a hall, wherein they kept their 
courts; and this court anciently called hall-mote, or folk- 
mote. 3 ^ 

With whom verbatim concurreth (who would not willingly 
dissent from him in point of common law) the learned doctor 
Cowel in his " Interpreter." 

But let all take heed that they confound not this court with 
another more ancient (and more proper for the cognizance of the 

* Titus i. 12. f Stow s Survey of London, p. 32. J Actsiii. 2. 

Sir Edward Coke, Institut. part iv. cap. 9. 



350 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

pen of a divine) ; viz. Haly-mote Court, being a court derived 
from haly, which is holy, and mote a meeting, being an assembly 
kept before the lord mayor and sheriffs, for the regulation of 
the company of the bakers in London (wherein the staff of 
bread, and therein the life of the poor, is so much concerned) ; 
formerly kept on the Lord s-day (whence it took its name) 
before the feast of St. Thomas. But a court of common coun 
cil, December the 15th, 1609, altered that court until the 
Thursday before St. Thomas s day ; as since, by a later act of 
the same council, it is removed unto the Monday before the 
said festival. The ancient title of this court ran as followeth : 
" Curia sancti motus tenta in Guilhaldea civitatis London, 
coram majore et vicecomitibus civitatis London, die Dominico 
proximo ante festum sancti Thomse Apostoli, ad horam sextam 
ante meridiem ejusdem diei, secundum consuetudinem civitatis 
London." 

Such who are learned in the laws, and are pleased to reflect 
on the name of my author and worthy friend* will not in the 
least degree suspect the truth hereof. 

Before I come to enrol the list of the WORTHIES of this city, 
I premise the words Londinas and Londinensis, as some have 
curiously stated their senses ; according to whose fancy, 1. Lon 
dinas signifieth one born in London, wheresoever he doth live. 
2. Londinensis signifieth one living in London, wheresoever he 
was born. 

Could this be made a truth, this distinction would be very 
serviceable to me in this work ; but it will not hold water ; find 
ing, on due inquiry, that by the best critics both are used pro 
miscuously, for any either born or living in that city, save that 
Londinas (answering to the question cvjas] signifieth persons 
alone, whilst Londinensis importeth either persons or things re 
lating to that city ; as Turris Londinensis, Pons Londinensis, &c. 

PRINCES. 

KATHERINE, third daughter of king Henry the Third and 
queen Eleanor, was born at London, anno Domini 1252, No 
vember the 25th, being St. Katherine s day, whose name was 
therefore given unto her at the font, by Boniface archbishop of 
Canterbury, her uncle and godfather, f She died in her very 
infancy, on whom we will presume to bestow this epitaph : 

" Wak t from the womb, she on this world did peep, 
Disliked it, closed her eyes, fell fast asleep." 

She lieth interred at Westminster, in the space betwixt the 
chapels of king Edward and St. Bennet. 

JOAN, eldest daughter and third child of king Edward the 

* Mr. Richard Smith, still living ( 1659) ; "quondam seneschallus curise sancti- 
raotus antedictse. 1 F. 

f Speed s Chronicle, p. 551. 



PRINCES. 351 

Second and queen Isabel, was born in the Tower of London, 
about the year 1316.* She was afterwards married to David 
the Second, king of Scotland, continuing his wife twenty-eight 
years. This was she (as I conceivef) who was commonly called 
Joan Make-peace (and we know " Blessed are the peace-mak 
ers") ; improving her power (though sometimes with small sric- 
cess) to do good offices betwixt the two kingdoms. Coming 
into England to visit her brother king Edward the Third, she 
deceased here without issue, anno 135 7, and lieth buried in 
Greyfriars, London. 

It will not be amiss, in reference to her name, here to ob 
serve, that Joan (which is feminine to John) was a frequent 
name in the royal family of England, as also amongst foreign 
princes 5 and no wonder, seeing we find a worthy woman of 
that name benefactress to our Saviour himself.J However, 
seeing in later times it hath been counted but a coarse 
and homely name, and some proverbs of contempt have been 
cast thereon ; it hath since been mollified into Jane (sounding 
finer, it seems, to an English ear), though this modern name 
will hardly be found in any English writer three hundred 
years ago. 

KATHERINE, youngest daughter to king Henry the Seventh 
and Elizabeth his queen, was born in the Tower of London, on 
the 2nd day of February, anno Domini 1503, deceasing few days 
after. 

It is a sad, and probably too true an, account of an ancient 
man, which is given in his epitaph, 

" Here lies the man was born, and cried, 
Lived sixty years, fell sick, and died." 

What was a bad character of his aged unprofitableness, is a good 
one of this infant lady s innocence, of whom we know nothing, 
save that she sucked, fell sick, and deceased. Only let me add, 
she was the last princess born in the Tower ; our English kings 
hereafter removing their residence to Bridewell and White-hall ; 
and using the Tower, not so much as a palace for the state as 
prison for the strength thereof. 

[AMP.] ANNA BOLLEN, daughter of the Lord Thomas Bol- 
len, earl of Wiltshire, was (as some of her honourable relations 
still surviving do conjecture) born in London, and became se 
cond wife to king Henry the Eighth. Indeed he passionately 
affected her when but a lord s daughter, but did not marry her 
till she was a princess ; created by him marchioness of Pem 
broke, partly to make her the more proportionable match, and 

* Speed s Chronicle, p. 576. 

t Others apply it to Joan daughter to king John, wife to Alexander the Second, 
king of Scotland. F. Luke viii. 3. Camden s Remains. 



352 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

partly to try how she would become a coronet, before she wore 
a crown. 

The Papists much disparage her memory (malice will lie, or 
must be dumb) making all her wit to consist in boldness, her 
beauty in a French garb, and her modesty in a cunning coy 
ness ; whereas indeed she was a lady accomplished in body (was 
it likely king Henry would love what was not lovely ?) and vir 
tuous in mind, and, whilst a favourite of the king s, a favourer 
of all good men, and great promoter of the Gospel. The incon 
stancy of her husband s affections is conceived by most mode 
rate men (what else soever was pretended) her chiefest crime, 
and cause of her death, which happened anno 1536. 

[AMP.] KATHERINE HOWARD, daughter to the Lord Ed 
mund Howard, son to Thomas duke of Norfolk, was (though 
her father had large lands and houses in many places) probably 
born in London, and at last became fifth wife to king Henry 
the Eighth. Such as desire to know the names, number, and 
success of all six, may conceive king Henry thus speaking on 
his death-bed : 

" Three Kates, two Nans, and one dear Jane, I wedded ; 

One Spanish, one Dutch, and four English wives : 
From two I was divorced, two I beheaded, 
One died in child-bed, and one me survives." 

Of this Katherine Howard little is reported ; and yet too 
much, if all be true, of her incontinency, which cost her her life. 
The greatest good the land got by this match was a general 
leave to marry cousin-germans, formerly prohibited by the 
canon, and hereafter permitted by the common law ; a door of 
lawful liberty left open by God in Scripture, shut by the Pope 
for his private profit, opened again by the king, first for his own 
admittance (this Katherine being cousin- german to Anna Bol- 
len, his former wife), and then for the service of such subjects 
as would follow him upon the like occasion. This lady was be 
headed anno Domini 1540. 

SAINTS. 

Not to speak of St. Sedd, born in this city, and afterwards 
bishop thereof, of whom we find nothing reported, save that he 
was very instrumental to the converting of the Mercians ;* we 
begin with 

WULSINE, who was born in this city of worthy parents, 
breeding him up in the devotion of that age ;f and became a 
Benedictine monk ; till at last by his fast friend St. Dunstan, he 
was preferred, first abbot of Westminster, whence he was after- 

* Hierom Porter, Lives of the Saints, p. 25. 

f Hierom Porter, in his Flowers of the Lives of English Saints, January 8. 



WRITERS. 353 

wards removed to be bishop of Sherburne in Dorsetshire. A 
mighty champion he was for a monastical life, and therefore 
could not be quiet till he had driven all the secular priests out 
of Sherburne, and substituted monks in their room. I read not 
of any miracle done by him, either whilst living or when dead, 
save that, in the juncture of both, he is said with St. Stephen to 
have seen Heaven opened, &c. He had contracted great inti 
macy with one Egeline, a virtuous knight, who died on the same 
day with him, and he enjoined his monks that they should both 
be buried in one grave. Their joint death happened January the 
8th, anno 985. 

THOMAS BECKET, son to Gilbert Becket, merchant, and 
Maud his wife, was born in this city, in the place where now 
Mercers-chapel is erected. I have, reader, been so prodigal in 
the large description of his life, in my " Ecclesiastical His 
tory," that I have no new observable left to present you with. 
Only when I consider of the multitude of vows, made by supersti 
tious pilgrims to his shrine (where the stones were hallowed with 
their bended knees), I much admire at their will-worship, no 
vows appearing in Scripture but what were made to God alone. 
And therefore most impudent is the attempt of those papists, 
tampering to corrupt Holy Writ in favour of such vows, reading 
in the vulgar Latin, Prov. xx. 25 : " Ruina est homini devotare 
sanctos, et post vota retractare," (it is a snare to a man who 
often maketh vows to Saints, and after vows retracteth them) ; 
instead of, " Ruina est homini devorare sancta, et post vota re- 
tractare," (it is a snare to a man who devoureth that which is 
holy, and after vows to make inquiry.) 

This Becket was slain, as is notoriously known, on Innocents- 
day, in his own church of Canterbury, 1170. 

MARTYRS. 

WILLIAM SAUTRE, alias Chatris, parish priest of the church 
of St. Osith s, London, was the first Englishman that was put to 
death by fire, for maintaining the opinions of Wicliffe. 

In the primitive times (pardon, reader, no impertinent di- 
gression) such the lenity and tenderness of the fathers of the 
church towards heretics, that, contenting themselves with 
condemning their blasphemous opinions, they proceeded to no 
penalty on their persons. Yea, in after ages, when the Christian 
emperor would have punished the furious Donatists with a pe 
cuniary mulct, the holy men of those times so earnestly inter 
ceded, as to procure the remission.* And St. Augustine him 
self, who was most zealous in his writing against these Do 
natists^ professeth he had rather be himself slain by them, 
than by detecting them be any cause they should undergo the 

* Augustine, Epistle C8. f Epistle 127, and Retract, lib. ii. cap. 5. 

VOL. II. 2 A 



354 



WORTHIES OF LONDON. 



punishment of death ; whereas henceforward in England many 
were brought to the fire by the bishops and others of the 
clergy, whose opinions were neither so blasphemous, nor de 
portment so inhuman, as ancient heretics. 

I confess, not only simple heresy was charged on this Sautre, 
but also a relapse thereinto after abjuration ; in which case such 
is the charity of the canon law, that such a person is, " seculari 
judicio sine ulla penitus audientia relinquendus,"* (not affording 
any audience to one relapsed, though he should revoke his 
opinions.) Quite contrary to the charitable judgment of St. 
Chrysostom, who sticked not to say, XiXm/ae ^Eravo//<rac daiXde, 
(if thou fall a thousand times, and repent thee of thy folly, come 
boldly into the church. t) 

There is some difference amongst authors, about the legal pro 
ceedings against this Sautre, by what power he was condemned 
to die : 

Walsingham will have him die during the sitting of the par 
liament, secundo Henrici Quarti, by virtue of the law then 
made against heretics. J Others will have him put to death, not 
by any statute-law then made, but as convicted in a provincial 
council of the archbishop of Canterbury. 

The latter seemeth most true, because the writ De Hcerefico 
comburendo (sent down by the advice of the lords temporal to 
the mayor of London, to cause his execution) bare date the 
26th of February ; whereas it was ordered in that parliament 
that the penal statutes made therein should not take effect till 
after Whitsuntide. 

But, by what power soever it was done, poor Sautre was burnt 
in Smithfield, about the 28th of February, 1400. One criticism 
of cruelty and hypocrisy is most remarkable. The close of the 
archbishop s sentence of degradation, when Sautre was com 
mitted over to the secular court, endeth with this expression, 
" Beseeching the court aforesaid, that they will receive favour 
ably the said William, unto them thus re-committed. \\" 

We are much beholding to Baronius, for the better under 
standing this passage ; informing us that it was ever fashionable 
with their clergy to this day, that when they consign a heretic 
over to the secular for execution, " they effectually intercede 
that he may not be punished with death."^" For it appeareth 
in Prosper, that four bishops were excommunicated anno 392, 
for being accusers of Priscilian (the first heretic who was con 
futed with steel), that age conceiving all tendency to cruelty 
utterly inconsistent with clerical profession. And hence it was, 
thinks the aforesaid Baronius, that this custom was taken up, 
of the clergy s mock-mercy, in their dissembled mediation for 

* De Hseret. cap. 9. & tit. eod. cap. 4. in sexto. 

| Socrates de Chrysostomo, lib. 6. cap. xa. lat. 19. 

j Hypodlgma Neustria, anno 1401, p. 158. 

$ Rot. Parl. 2 Hen. IV. num. 116. 

jj Fox, Acts and Monuments, p. 51 7. U Tom, iv. anno 336. num. 23. 



MARTYRS PRELATES. 355 

condemned heretics. I say dissembled : for, if the lay, having 
them in his power, shall defer the doing of it more than ordi 
nary, it is the constant tenet of the Canonists (relying on a bull 
of Alexander the Fourth, 1260,) he is to be compell d unto it by 
spiritual censures. 

We have been the larger upon this Sautre s death, because 
he was the English Protestant (pardon the prolepsis] Proto- 
martyr. But every son must not look to be an heir ; we will 
be shorter on the rest in this city, contenting ourselves with 
their bare names, except some extraordinary matter present 
itself to our observation. 

JOHN BADBY was an artificer in Blackfriars in London, con 
demned, and burned in Smithfield, about 1401. Henry Prince 
of Wales (afterwards king Henry the Fifth) happened to be 
present at his execution, who not only promised him pardon on 
his recantation, but also a stipend out of the king s treasury, 
sufficient for his support ; all which Badby refused. He was 
put into an empty tun (a ceremony of cruelty peculiar to him 
alone), and the fire put therein. 

At the first feeling thereof, he cried " Mercy, mercy,"* 
begging it of the God of heaven ; which noble prince Henry 
mistook for a kind of revocation of his opinions, and presently 
caused the fire round about him to be quenched, renewing his 
promises unto him with advantage ; which Badby refused the 
second time, and was martyred. 

But, reader, I will engage no deeper in this copious subject, 
lest I lose myself in the labyrinth thereof. Joseph left off to 
number the corn in Egypt, " for it was without number ;"f the 
cause alone of my desisting in this subject. Yea, bloody Bonner 
had murdered many more, had not that hydropical humor 
which quenched the life of queen Mary extinguished also the 
fires in Smithfield. 

PRELATES. 

Here in this city we are at a greater loss, as to this topic, than 
in any shire in England ; for in vain it is for any man to name 
himself Thomas of London, John of London, &c. ; such sur 
names not reaching their end, nor attaining their intention, viz., 
to diversify the person, the laxity of so populous a place leaving 
them as unspecified as it found them. We therefore have cause 
to believe, that many clergymen, both bishops and writers, born 
in this city, did not follow suit with others of their coat, to be 
named from the place of their nativity, but from their fathers ; 
the reason why we can give so slender an account of them as 
followeth. 

* Fox, Acts and Monuments, p. 522. f Gen. xli. 49. 

2 A 2 



356 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

SIMON OF GAUNT was born in this city* (his mother being 
an English woman, his father a Fleming) ; and, being bred in 
good literature, became so famous, that by king Edward the 
First he was preferred bishop of Salisbury, 1298. He gave the 
first leave to the citizens thereof to fortify that place with a 
deep ditch, partly remaining, and a strong wall wholly de 
molished at this day. Now, seeing good laws are the best walls 
of any foundation, no less was his care for the church than city 
of Salisbury, making good statutes, whereby it was ordered even 
unto our age. He died about the year 1315. 

JOHN KITE was borne in London, bred in Oxford, sent am 
bassador into Spain, made a Grecian titulary archbishop (receiv 
ing thence as much profit as men shear wool from hogs), and at 
last the real bishop of Carlisle :f yet is his epitaph, in the 
church of Stepney, neither good English, Latin, Spanish, or 
Greek, but a barbarous confusion, as followeth : 

" Under this stone closyd et marmorate 
Lyeth John Kite, Londoner natiffe. 
Encreasing in virtues, rose to hygh estate 
In the fourth Edward s chappel by his yong life 
Sith which the Seuinth Henries service primatife 
Proceeding still in virtuous efficase 
To be in favour with this our king s grase. 
With witt endewyed chosen to be legate, 
Sent into Spain, where he right joyfully 
Combined both princes in pease most amate. 
In Grece archbishop elected worthely 
And last of Carlyel ruling postorally : 
Keeping nobyl houshold with great hospitality. 
On thousand fyve hundred thirty and seuyn 
Inuyterate with carys consumed with age, 
The nineteeth of Jun, reckonyd full euyn 
Passed to Heauyn from worldly pylgramage, 
Of whose soul good peopul of Cherite 
Prey, as ye wold be preyd for, for thus must you lye ; 
Jesu mercy, Lady help. 

These, if made 300 years ago, had been excusable ; but such 
midnight verses are abominable, made, as it appears, in the 
dawning of good learning and pure language. Yet, because some 
love poetry, either very good or very bad, that if they cannot 
learn from it, they may laugh at it, they are here inserted. 

WILLIAM KNIGHT was born in this city, bred Fellow of New 
College in Oxford, on the same token that there have been ten 
of his surname, Fellows of that foundation. J He proceeded 
doctor of law ; and a noble pen makes him secretary to king 
Henry the Eighth. Sure it is, he was the first person employed 
to the Pope, to motion to him the matter of his divorce ; ad- 

* J Bale, J. Pits ; and Bishop Godwin, in the Bishops of Salisbury. 

f Godwin, in the Bishops of Carlisle. 

j Register of that College, in anno 1493. 

Lord Herbert, in the Life of Henry VIII. p. 216. 



PRELATES. 357 

vertising the king, by his weekly dispatches, how slowly his 
cause (though spurred with English gold) crept on in the court 
of Rome. After his return, the king rewarded his industry, fide 
lity, and ability, with bestowing the bishopric of Bath and Wells 
upon him. 

In Wells (with the assistance of Dean Woolman) he built a 
stately covered cross in the market-place, for the glory of God 
and conveniency of poor people, to secure them from the wea 
ther ; adding this inscription, " Laus Deo, pax vivis, requies 
defunctis." He died September 29, anno 1547. 

NICOLAS HEATH was born, and had his childhood, in the 
city of London, being noted for one of St. Anthony s pigs 
therein (so were the scholars of that school commonly called, 
as those of St. Paul s, Paul s pigeons) ; * and bred first in Christ s 
College, then Fellow of Clare Hall in Cambridge.f By king 
Henry the Eighth (to whom he was almoner) he was preferred 
bishop, first of Rochester, then of Worcester; deprived by king 
Edward the Sixth ; restored by queen Mary, who advanced him 
archbishop of York and lord chancellor of England. A mode 
rate man, who would not let the least spark of persecution be 
kindled in his diocese, if any in his province. 

In the conference at Westminster betwixt Papists and Pro 
testants, primo Elizabethse, he was a kind of moderator, but in 
terposed little. Infected by his fellow-prisoner- Popish-prelates, 
he could not be persuaded to take the oath of supremacy, for 
which he was deprived. He led a pious and private life, on his 
own lands, at Cobham in Surrey, whither queen Elizabeth came 
often to visit him ; and died about the year of our Lord 1566. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

JOHN YOUNGE, D.D. was born in Cheapside, and bred in 
Pembroke Hall in Cambridge, whereof he became master; 
hence he was preferred rector of St. Giles, Cripplegate, and at 
last bishop of Rochester ;J a constant preacher, and to whose 
judgment queen Elizabeth ascribed much in church-matters. 

Better bishoprics were often offered to, and as often refused by 
him ; particularly when Norwich was proffered him, by one who 
affirmed it to be a higher seat, bishop Young pleasantly returned, 
" Yea, but it is a harder, and not so easy for an old man, since 
the cushion was taken away from it ; " meaning, since Dr. Scam- 
bier had scumbled away the revenues thereof. He died anno 
Domini 1605; and lieth buried at Bromley church in Kent, 
where his son most solemnly and sumptuously interred him, 
though he enjoined all possible privacy, and on his death-bed 
forbad all funeral expences. But in such cases it may become 

* Stow s Survey of London. f Richard Hall, in the Life of Bishap Fisher. 

J So am I informed by Sir John Young, his grandchild. F. 



358 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

the charity and affection of the survivors, to do what beseems 
not so well the modesty and discretion of the dying to desire. 

WILLIAM COTTON, D.D. was born in this city (though his 
infancy was much conversant about Finchley in Middlesex), 
as his nearest relation* hath informed me. He was bred in 
Queen s College in Cambridge ; preferred by queen Elizabeth 
archdeacon of Lewes, and canon residentiary of St. Paul s. Hence 
he was advanced and consecrated bishop of Exeter, November 
the 12th, 1598. 

During his sitting there, Mr. Snape, a second Cartwright 
(not for abilities but activity), came out of Jersey, and plenti 
fully sowed the seeds of nonconformity in his diocese, which the 
vigilancy of this stout and prudent prelate plucked up by the 
roots, before they could come to perfection. 

In his old age he was apoplectical, which malady deprived 
him of his speech some days before his death ; so that he could 
only say "Amen, amen," often reiterated. Hereupon some scan 
dalous tongues broached this jeer, " that he lived like a bishop, 
and died like a dark ; " and yet let such men know, that no dy 
ing person can use any one word more expressive ; whether it 
be an invocation of his help in whom all the promises are Amen ; 
or whether it be a submission to the Divine Providence in all, 
by way of approbation of former, or option of future things. 

I will only add and translate his epitaph, transcribed from his 
monument. 

A Paula ad Petrwni pia te Regina vocavit . 
Cum Petro et Paulo cccli Rex arce Lcavit. 

" Whom th queen from Paul to Peter did remove : 
Him God with Paul and Peter plac d above." 

He lieth buried in the north side of the choir of Exeter ; but 
his monument is distanced from the place of his interment, in a 
north-east chapel. His death happened anno Domini 1621. 

LANCELOT ANDREWS, D.D, was born in this city, in Tower 
Street ; his father being a seaman of good repute belonging to 
Trinity-house. He was bred scholar, fellow, and master of Pem 
broke Hall in Cambridge. 

He was an inimitable preacher in his way ; and such plagi 
aries who have stolen his sermons could never steal his preach 
ing, and could make nothing of that whereof he made all things 
as he desired. Pious and pleasant bishop Felton (his contem 
porary and colleague) endeavoured in vain in his sermon to as 
similate his style ; and therefore said merrily of himself, " I had 
almost marred my own natural trot, by endeavouring to imitate 
his artificial amble." But I have spoken largely of this peerless 
prelate in my "Church History. He died anno Domini 1626. 

* Edward Cotton, D.D. his son. 



PRELATES. 359 

THOMAS DOVE, D.D. was born in tfiis city, as a credible per 
son * of his nearest relation hath informed me, bred a tanquam 
(which is a fellow s fellow) in Pembroke Hall in Cambridge. He 
afterwards became an eminent preacher : and his sermons, sub 
stantial in themselves, were advantaged by his comely person 
and graceful elocution. Queen Elizabeth was highly affected, and 
anno 1589 preferred him dean of Norwich, advancing him eleven 
years after to the bishopric of Peterborough^ He departed 
this life, 1630, in the thirtieth year of his bishopric, on the thir 
tieth of August, who kept a good house whilst he lived, and yet 
raised a family to knightly degree. 

JOHN HOWSON, D.D. was born in St. Bride s parish in this 
city;J bred a scholar in St". Paul s School; whence going to 
Oxford, he became a student and canon of Christ-church, and 
afterwards was consecrated bishop of Oxford, May 9, 1619, 
being his birth-day in his climacterical, then entering upon the 
63rd year of his age. 

His learned book, " In what case a Divorce is lawful," with his 
Sermons against Sacrilege, and Stating of the Pope s supremacy, 
in four sermons, enjoined on him by king James (to clear his 
causeless aspersion of favouring Popery), and never since re 
plied unto by the Romish party, have made him famous to all 
posterity. He was afterwards removed to the bishopric of 
Durham, but continued not long therein ; for he died, in the 
75th year of his age, 6th of February, anno Domini 1631, and 
was buried in St. Paul s in London. 

JOHN DAVENANT, D.D. born in Watling- street, was son to 
John Davenant, a wealthy citizen, whose father was of Dave- 
nant s Lands in Essex. When an infant newly able to go, he 
fell down a high pair of stairs, and rising up at the bottom 
smiled, without having any harm; God and his good angels 
keeping him for further service in the church. 

When a child, he would rather own his own frowardness, 
than another s flattery ; and, when soothed up by the servants, 
" that not John but some other of his brothers did cry," he 
would rather appear in his own face, than wear their disguise ; 
returning, " that it was none of his brothers, but John only 
cried." 

He was bred first fellow-commoner, then fellow, then Mar 
garet professor, then master of Queen s College in Cambridge. 
At a public election, he gave his negative voice against a near 
kinsman, and a most excellent scholar ;|| "Cousin," said he, 

* Mr. Thursby. f See more of him in my " Church History." F. 

\ So am I informed by his own daughter, the widow of famous Master Farnaby, 
since re-married to Mr. Cole in Suffolk. F. 

H. Holland, in his printed additions to Bishop Godwin. 

|| Mr. John Gore (afterwards knighted) of Gilesden in Hertfordshire 



360 WORTHIES OF LONDON, 



" I will satisfy your father, that you have worth, but not want, 
enough to be one of our society." 

Returning from the synod of Dorr, he was elected bishop of 
Sarum, 1621. 

After his consecration, being to perform some personal ser 
vice to king James at Newmarket, he refused to ride on the 
Lord s-day; and came (though a day later to the Court) no less 
welcome to the king, not only accepting his excuse, but also 
commending his seasonable forbearance. 

Taking his leave of the college, and of one John Rolfe, an 
ancient servant thereof, he desired him to pray for him, and 
when the other modestly returned, that he rather needed his 
lordship s prayers : " Yea, John," said he, " an d I need thine 
too, being now to enter into a calling wherein I shall meet with 
many and great temptations." " Preefuit qui profuit," was the 
motto written in most of his books ; the sense whereof he prac 
tised in his conversation. 

He was humble in himself, and (the consequence thereof) 
charitable to others. Indeed, once invited by bishop Field, and 
not well pleased with some roisting company there, he embraced 
the next opportunity of departure after dinner. And when 
bishop Field proffered to light him with a candle down stairs, 
" My lord, my lord," said he, " let us lighten others by our 
unblameable conversation ;" for which speech some since have 
severely censured him, how justly I interpose not. But let 
others unrelated unto him write his character, whose pen cannot 
be suspected of flattery, which he when living did hate, and 
dead did not need. 

We read of the patriarch Israel, that the time drew nigh, that 
he must die ;* .must, a necessity of it. Such a decree attended 
this bishop, happy to die, before his order (for a time) died, 
April 1641 : and with a solemn funeral he was buried in his 
own cathedral ; Dr. Nicholas (now dean of St. Paul s) preach 
ing an excellent sermon at his interment. 

MATTHEW WREN, D.D. was born in this city (not far from 
Cheapside) ; but descended (as appears by his arms) from the 
worshipful family of the Wrens in Northumberland. He was 
bred fellow of Pembroke- hall in Cambridge, where he kept the 
extraordinary Philosophy Act before king James. I say, kept 
it, with no less praise to himself, than pleasure to the king ; 
where if men should forget, even dogs would remember, his 
seasonable distinction, what the king s hounds could perform 
above others, by virtue of their prerogative. 

He afterwards became an excellent preacher ; and two of his 
sermons in the university were most remarkable. 

One preached before the judges on this text, " And let judg- 

* Gen. xlvii. 29. 



PRELATES STATESMEN. 361 

ment run down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty 
stream ;"* at what time the draining of the fens was designed, 
suspected detrimental to the university. 

The other, when newly returned from attending prince Charles 
into Spain, on the words of the Psalmist, " Abyssus abyssum 
invocat ;" (one depth calleth another -t) 

He was afterwards preferred master of Peter-house, dean of 
Windsor, bishop of Norwich and Ely. Some in the Long Par 
liament fell so heavily on him, that he was imprisoned in the 
Tower almost fifteen years, and his cause never heard. Surely, 
had the imposers been the sufferers hereof, they would have 
cried it up for a high piece of injustice ; but, as St, Paul had 
the credit to be brought with entreaties out of prison by those 
who sent him thither,! so this prelate hath had the honour, that 
the same parliamentary power (though not constituted of the 
same persons) which committed him, caused his enlargement, 
still living 1661. 

STATESMEN. 

Sir THOMAS MORE was, anno Domini 1480, born in Milk- 
street, London (the brightest star that ever shined in that via 
lactea), sole son to Sir John More, knight, one of the justices 
of the King s Bench. 

Some have reported him of mean parentage, merely from a 
mistake of a modest word, in an epitaph of his -own making, on 
his monument in Chelsea church ; where nobilis is taken not in 
the civil but common law sense, which alloweth none noble 
under the degree of barons. Thus men cannot be too wary 
what they inscribe on tombs, which may prove a record (though 
not in law, in history) to posterity. 

He was bred first in the family of archhishop Morton, then in 
Canterbury college (now taken into Christ-church) in Oxford, 
where he profited more in two, than many in ten years con 
tinuance. 

Thence he removed to an inn of Chancery called New Inn, 
and from thence to Lincoln s Inn, where he became a double 
reader. Then did his worth prefer him to be judge in the 
sheriff of London s Court, whilst a pleader in others. And 
although he only chose such causes which appeared just to his 
conscience, and never took fee of widow, orphan, or poor per 
son ; he gained in those days four hundred pounds per annum. 
Being made a member of the House of Commons, he opposed 
king Henry the Seventh, about money for the marriage of his 
daughter Margaret : whereat the king was much discontented, 
when a courier told him, " that a beardless boy (beard was 

* Amos v. 24. -f Psalm xiii. 7. J Acts xvi. 39. 

The sum hereof is taken out of his printed Life (rare to be had) written by a 
nephew of his, more fairly and impartially than any would expect from so near a 
relation F. 



362 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

never the true standard for brains) had obstructed his desires ;" 
which king, being as certain, but more secret than his son in 
his revenge, made More the mark of his displeasure ; who, to 
decline his anger, had travelled beyond the seas, had not the 
king s going into another world stopped his journey. 

King Henry the Eighth coming to the crown, and desirous to 
ingratiate himself by preferring popular and deserving persons, 
knighted Sir Thomas, and made him chancellor of the duchy of 
Lancaster, the king s personal patrimony. 

Finding him faithful in lesser matters (according to the me 
thod of the Gospel), he made him in effect ruler of all, when 
lord chancellor of England ; a place wherein he demeaned him 
self with great integrity, and with no less expedition. 

In testimony of the latter, it is recorded, that, calling for the 
next cause, it was returned unto him, " There are no more to 
be heard, all suits in that court depending, and ready for hear 
ing, being finally determined." 

Whereon a rhythmer : 

"When More some years had chancellor been, 

No more suits did remain; 
The same shall never more be seen 
Till More be there again." 

Falling into the king s displeasure for not complying with him 
about the queen s divorce, he seasonably resigned his chancel 
lor s place, and retired to his house in Chelsea, chiefly employ 
ing himself in writing against those who were reputed heretics. 
And yet it is observed to his credit (by his great friend Eras 
mus) that, whilst he was lord chancellor, no Protestant was put 
to death ; and it appears by some passages in his " Utopia," 
that it was against his mind that any should lose their lives for 
their consciences. 

He rather soiled his fingers than dirtied his hands in the 
matter of the holy maid of Kent ; and well wiped it off again. 
But his referring (or rather not accepting) the oath of supre 
macy, stuck by him, for which he was sixteen months imprison 
ed in the Tower, bearing his afflictions with remarkable patience. 
He was wont to say, " that his natural temper was so tender, 
that he could not endure a fillip ; " but a supernatural princi 
ple (we see) can countermand, yea help natural imperfections. 

In his time (as till our memory) Tower prisoners were not 
dieted on their own, but on the king s charges ; the lieutenant 
of the Tower providing their fare for them. And when the 
lieutenant said, " that he was sorry that commons were no bet 
ter," " I like," said Sir Thomas, " your diet very well ; and if I 
dislike it, I pray turn me out of doors." 

Not long after, he was beheaded on Tower-hill, 1535. He 
left not above one hundred pounds a year estate ; perfectly 
hating covetousness, as may appear by his refusing four or 
five thousand pounds offered him by the clergy.* Among his 



STATESMEN. 363 

Latin books his Utopia beareth the bell, containing the idea of 
a complete common-wealth in an imaginary island (but pretend 
ed to be lately discovered in America) ; and that so lively coun 
terfeited, that many, at the reading thereof, mistook it for a 
real truth ; insomuch that many great learned men, as Budeus, 
and Johannes Paludanus, upon a fervent zeal, wished that some 
excellent divines might be sent thither to preach Christ s Gos 
pel ;f yea, there were here amongst us at home sundry good 
men and learned divines, very desirous to undertake the voyage, 
to bring the people to the faith of Christ, whose manners they 
did so well like. 

By his only son, Mr. John More, he had five grandchildren ; 
Thomas and Augustin, born in his life time, who proved zealous 
Romanists : Edward, Thomas, and Bartholomew (born after his 
death) were firm Protestants ; and Thomas, a married minister 
of the Church of England. 

MARGARET MORE. Excuse me, reader, for placing a lady 
among men and learned statesmen. The reason is, because of 
her unfeigned affection to her father, from whom she would not 
willingly be parted (and for me shall not be) either living or dead. 

She was born in Bucklersbury in London at her father s house 
therein, and attained to that skill in all learning and languages 
that she became the miracle of her age. Foreigners took such 
notice hereof, that Erasmus hath dedicated some epistles unto 
her. No woman that could speak so well did speak so little ; 
whose secrecy was such, that her father entrusted her with 
his most important affairs. 

Such was her skill in the Fathers, that she corrected a de 
praved place in Cyprian ; for whereas it was corruptly written 
" Nisi vos sinceritatis," she amended it, " Nervos sinceritatis.":]: 

Yea, she translated Eusebius out of Greek ; but it was never 
printed, because I. Christopherson had done it so exactly before. 

She was married to William Roper, of Eltham in Kent, es 
quire, one of a bountiful heart and plentiful estate. When her 
father s head was set up on London Bridge, it being suspected 
it would be cast into the Thames, to make room for divers others 
(then suffering for denying the king s supremacy), she bought 
the head, and kept it for a relic (which some called affection, 
others religion, others superstition in her) ; for which she was 
questioned before the council, and for some short time impri 
soned, until she had buried it ; and how long she herself sur 
vived afterwards, is to me unknown. 

THOMAS WRIOTHESLEY, Knight of the Garter, was born in 
Barbican, son to William Wriothesley, York herald, and grand 
child to John Wriothesley (descended from an heir general of 

* Mr. More, in the Life of his Grandfather, p. 405. f Idem, p. 359. 

J This is acknowledged by J. Costerus, and Pamelion, oil that place. 
The house of his nativity is called Garter-court. 



364 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

the ancient family of the Dunstervilles) king of arms. He was 
bred in the university of Cambridge ; and if any make a doubt 
thereof, it is cleared by the passage of Mr. Ascham s letter unto 
him,* writing in the behalf of the university when he was lord 
chancellor, " Quamobrem Academia cum omni literarum ratione, 
ad te unum conversa (cui uni quam universis aliis se chariorem 
intelligit) partim tibi ut alumno suo, cum authoritate imperat : 
partim, ut patrono summo, demisse et humiliter supplicat, &c." 
He afterwards effectually applied his studies in our municipal 
law, wherein he attained to great eminency. He was by king 
Henry the Eighth created baron of Titchborne at Hampton 
Court, January the first, 1543, and in the next year, about the 
beginning of May, by the said king made chancellor of England. 
But, in the first of king Edward the Sixth, he was removed from 
that place (because a conscientiously rigorous Romanist) ; though, 
in some reparation, he was advanced to be earl of Southampton. 
He died at his house, called Lincoln s place, in Holborn, 1550, 
the 30th of July ; and lies buried at St. Andrew s in Holborn. 

WILLIAM PAGET, Knight, was born in this city, of honest 
parents,t who gave him pious and learned education, whereby 
he was enabled to work out his own advancement ; privy coun 
cillor to four successive princes, which, though of different per 
suasions, agreed all in this, to make much of an able and trusty 
minister of state. 

1 . King Henry the Eighth made him his secretary, and employ 
ed him ambassador to Charles the emperor, and Francis king 
of France. 

2. King Edward the Sixth made him chancellor of the duchy, 
comptroller of his househeld, and created him baron of Beaudesert. 

3. Queen Mary made him keeper of her privy seal. 

4. Queen Elizabeth dispensed with his attendance at court, 
in favour to his great age, and highly respected him. 

Indeed, duke Dudley, in the days of king Edward, ignomini- 
ously took from him the garter of the order; quarrelling, that by 
his extraction he was not qualified for the same. But, if all be 
true \vhich is reported of this duke s parentage, J he of all men 
was most unfit to be active in such an employment. But no 
wonder if his pride wrongfully snatched a garter from a subject, 
whose ambition endeavoured to deprive two princes of a crown. 
This was restored unto him by queen Mary, and that with cere 
mony and all solemn accents of honour, as to a person " who 
by his prudence had merited much of the nation." He died 
very old, anno 1563 ; and his corpse (as I remember) is buried 
in Lichfield, and not in the vault under the church of Dray ton 
in Middlesex, where the rest of that family, I cannot say lie (as 

* Page 200. f Out of the Herald s Visitation of Staffordshire. 

} See Edmuud Dudley, in our Description of Staffordshire. 
Camden, Elizabeth, anno 1563. 



STATESMEN. 365 

whose coffins are erected), but are very completely reposed in a 
peculiar posture, which I meet not with elsewhere ; the horror 
of a vault being much abated with the lightness and sweetness 
thereof. 

THOMAS WENTWORTH was born (his mother coming casu 
ally to London) in Chancery Lane, in the parish of St. Dun- 
stan s in the West.* Yet no reason Yorkshire should be de 
prived of the honour of him whose ancestors long flourished 
in great esteem at Wentworth Woodhouse in that county. 

He was bred in St. John s College in Cambridge, and after 
wards became a champion patriot on all occasions. He might 
seem to have a casting voice in the House of Commons; for 
where he was pleased to dispose his yea or nay, there went the 
affirmative or negative. It was not long before the court gained 
him from the country ; and then honours and offices were heap 
ed on him ; created baron and viscount Wentworth, earl of 
Strafford, and lord deputy of Ireland. 

When he went over into Ireland, all will confess he laid 
down to himself this noble foundation ; vigorously to endeavour 
the reduction of the Irish, to perfect obedience to the king, and 
profit to the exchequer. But many do deny the superstructure 
(which he built thereon) was done by legal line and plummet. 

A parliament was called in England ; and many crimes were, 
by prime persons of England, Scotland, and Ireland, charged 
upon him. He fenced skilfully for his life ; and his grand guard 
was this, that (though confessing some misdemeanors) all prov 
ed against him amounted not to treason. 

And indeed number cannot create a new kind ; so that many 
trespasses cannot make a riot, many riots one treason, no more 
than many frogs can make one toad. But here the distinction 
of accumulative and constructive treason was coined, and caused 
his destruction. 

Yet his adversaries politicly brake off the edge of the axe, 
which cut off his head, by providing his condemnation should 
not pass into precedent to posterity ; so that his death was re 
markable, but not exemplary. Happy had it been, if (as it made 
no precedent on earth, so) no remembrance thereof had been 
kept in Heaven. 

Some hours before his suffering, he fell fast asleep, alleged 
by his friends as an evidence of the clearness of his conscience ; 
and hardly to be paralleled, save in St. Peter, in a "dead 
sleep,"t the night before he was to die, condemned by Herod. 
His death happened in 1641. 

He hath an eternal monument in the matchless meditations 
of king Charles the First ; and an everlasting epitaph in that 
weighty character there given him, " I looked upon my lord of 
Strafford as a gentleman, whose abilities might make a prince 

* Register of St. Dunstan s. t Acts xii. 6. 



366 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

rather afraid than ashamed, in the greatest affairs of state, 
8te.* 

God alone can revive the dead. All that princes can perform 
is to honour their memory and posterity ; as our gracious sove 
reign king Charles hath made his worthy son Knight of the 
Garter. 

LYONEL CRANFIELD, son to Randal Cranfield, citizen, and 
Martha his wife, daughter to the Lady Dennis of Gloucester 
shire^ (who by her will, which I have perused, bequeathed a fair 
estate unto her) was born in Basinghall Street, and bred a 
merchant, much conversant in the custom-house. 

He may be said to have been his own tutor, and his own uni 
versity. King James being highly affected with the clear, brief, 
strong, yea and profitable sense he spake, preferred him lord 
treasurer 1621, baron of Cranfield, and earl of Middlesex, 
Under him it began to be young flood in the Exchequer 
(wherein there was a very low ebb when he entered on that of 
fice) ; and he possessed his treasurer s place some four years, 
till he fell into the duke of Buck s (the best of friends, and 
worst of foes) displeasure. Some say this lord, who rose chiefly 
by the duke (whose near kinswoman he married) endeavoured 
to stand without, yea, in some cases (for the king s profit) 
against him ; which independency and opposition that duke 
would not endure. Flaws may soon be found, and easily be 
made breaches, in great officers ; who, being active in many, 
cannot be exact in all matters. 

However, this lord, by losing his office, saved himself, de 
parting from his treasurer s place, which in that age was hard 
to keep ; insomuch that one asking, " what was good to pre 
serve life }" was answered, " Get to be lord treasurer of Eng 
land, for they never do die in their place ;" which indeed was 
true for four successions. 

Retiring to his magnificent house at Copt-hall, he there en 
joyed himself contentedly ; entertained his friends bountifully, 
neighbours hospitably, poor charitably. He was a proper per 
son, of comely presence, cheerful yet grave countenance, and 
surely a solid and wise man. And though their soul be the 
fattest who only suck the sweet milk, they are the healthfullest 
who (to use the Latin phrase) have tasted of both the breasts of 
fortune. He died, as I collect, anno 1644 ; and lieth interred 
in a stately monument in the abbey at Westminster. 

WRITERS ON THE LAW. 

FLETA, or FLEET. We have spoken formerly of the Fleet 
as a prison ; but here it importeth a person disguised under that 
name, who, it seems, being committed to the Fleet, therein 
wrote a book of the common laws of England, and other anti- 

* Ei xoiv Bac-iXix>;, Med. 2. p. 6. 

j- Register of the Parish of St. Michael, Basinghall. 



WRITERS. 367 

quities. There is some difference concerning the time when 
this learned book of Fleta was set fortlr; but it may be demon 
strated done before the fourteenth of the reign of king Edward 
the Third: for he saith that "it is no murder except it be 
proved that the party slain was English, and no stranger ;"* 
whereas this was altered in the fourteenth year of the said king,t 
when the killing of any (though a foreigner, living under the 
king s protection) out of prepensed malice, was made murder. 
- He seemeth to have lived about the end of king Edward the 
Second, and beginning of king Edward the Third.J Seeing in 
that juncture of time two kings in effect were in being, the 
father in right, the son in might, a small contempt might cause 
a confinement to that place; and as loyal subjects be within it 
as without it. Sure it is, that (notwithstanding the confine 
ment of the author) his book hath had a good passage, and is 
reputed law to posterity. 

CHRISTOPHER ST. GERMAN. Reader, wipe thine eyes, and 
let mine smart, if thou readest not what richly deserves thine 
observation ; seeing he was a person remarkable for his gentility, 
piety, chastity, charity, ability, industry, and vivacity. 

1. Gentility ; descended from a right ancient family, born (as 
I have cause to believe) in London ; and bred in the Inner 
Temple, in the study of our laws. 2. Piety ; he carried Saint 
in his nature (as well as in his surname), constantly reading and 
expounding every night to his family a chapter in the Bible. 
3. Chastity ; living and dying unmarried, without the least spot 
on his reputation. 4. Charity ; giving consilia and auxilia to 
all his people gratis. Indeed I read of a company of physi 
cians in Athens, called avapyvpoi, because they would take no 
money of their patients ; and our St. German was of their judg 
ment as to his clients. 5. Ability ; being excellently skilled in 
civil, canon, and common law ; so that it was hard to say 
wherein he excelled. Add to these his skill in Scripture ; wit 
ness his book called " The Doctor and Student," where the for 
mer vies divinity with the law of the latter. 6. Industry ; he 
wrote several works, wherein he plainly appeareth not only a 
favourer of but champion for the reformation. 7- Vivacity; 
living to be above eighty years old ; and, dying anno Domini 
1593, was buried at St. Alphage, London, near Cripplegate. 

WILLIAM RASTAL was born in this city (sister s son to Sir 
Thomas More) ; and was bred in the study of our common 
law ; and whoever readeth this passage in Pits, will thence con 
clude him one of the two. chief justices of England: " Factus 
est civilium et criminalium causarum alter ex duobus per Ang- 

" Lib. i. cap. 30. f Statutes 14 Edward III. cap. 4. 

t Cowel s Interp. de verbo Fleta. 

Bale, de Scriptoribus Eritannicis, Cent. viii. n. 75. 



368 WORTHIES OF LONDON, 

liam supremis judicibus ;"* whereas in deed he was but one of 
the justices of the King s Bench : yet his ability and integrity 
did capacitate him for higher preferment, being also a person 
of industry. 

He wrote the Life, and set forth the Works, of his uncle 
More ; and made a collection of, and comment on, the Statutes 
of England. 

Great was his zeal to the Romish religion : flying into Flan 
ders, with the changing of his country (under king Edward the 
Sixth), he changed the nature of his studies ; but then wrote 
worse books on a better subject, I mean divinity. He under 
took bishop Jewel, as much his over-match in divinity, as 
Rastal was his in the common law. The Papists are much 
pleased with him, for helping their cause (as they conceive) ; 
and we are not angry with him, who hath not hurt ours in any 
degree. 

He died at Louvain, 1565 ; and lieth buried, with his wife, in 
the same tomb ; and this epitaph may be bestowed on him : 

" Rastallus tumulo cum conjuge dormit in uno, 
Unius carnis pulvis et unus erit." 

Know that Winifred Clement, his wife, was one of the greatest 
female scholars, an exact Grecian, and (the crown of all) most 
pious according to her persuasion. 

SOLDIERS. 

No city in Europe hath bred more (if not too many of late) ; 
and indeed we had had better tradesmen if worse soldiers. I 
dare not adventure into so large a subject, and will instance but 
in one (to keep possession for the rest) ; submitting myself to 
the reader s censure, whether the parties merit or my private 
relation puts me on his memorial. 

Sir THOMAS ROPER, son of Thomas Roper, servant to queen 
Elizabeth, was born in Friday-street in London, whose grand 
father was a younger son of the house of Heanour in Derby 
shire. Indeed Furneaux was the ancient name of that family, 

until Richard Furneaux married Isald the daughter of 

Roper, of Beighton, in the county of Derby, esquire ; and on 
that consideration was bound to assume the name of Roper, by 
indenture dated the seventh of Henry the Sixth.f This Sir 
Thomas, going over into the Low Countries, became page to 
Sir John Norrice, and was captain of a foot company at sixteen 
years of age. What afterwards his martial performances were, 
to avoid all suspicion of flattery (to which my relation may 
incline me) I have transcribed the rest out of the original of his 
patent. 

" Cum Thomas Roper, Eques auratus, e secretioribus concili- 

* Pits, de Angliae Scriptoribus, wtat. 16, anno 1565. 

t Dugdale, in his Antiquities of Warwickshire illustrated, p. 212. 



SOLDIERS. 3G9 

arils nostris in regno nostro Hyberniae, jampridem nobis bellicse 
virtutis splendore clarus innotuerit ; utpote qui quamplurimis 
rebus per eum in nuperrimo bello hujus regni fortiter gestis, 
preeclarum nomen et strenui militis et prudentis duels reporta- 
vit : cujus virtus precipue in recessu in provincm nostra. 
Conaciae prope Le Boyle emicuit, ubi paucissimis admodum 
equestribus ingentes equitum turmas per regni meditullia 
hostiliter grassantes fortiter aggressus : ita prudentia su& singu 
lar! receptui cecinit, ut non modo, et se, et suos, sed etiam 
totum exercitum ab ingenti periculo liberavit, hostesque quam- 
plurimos ruinae tradidit : 

" Qui etiam, cum provincia nostra Ultonise bello deflagaverat, 
ob exploratam animi fortudininem, ab honoratissimo comite 
Essexiae exercitus tune imperatore, unus ex omnibus designatus 
fuit ad duellam cum Makal, uno ex fortissimis Tyronentium 
agminum ducibus suscipiendam, nisi preedictus Makal duello 
prsedicto se exponere remisisset : 

" Cumque etiam prsedictus Thomas Roper, in nuperrimo bello 
apud Brest, in regno Galliee, se maximis periculis objiciendo, et 
sanguinem suum effundendo, fortitudinem suam invectam 
demonstravit : 

" Qui etiam in expeditione Portugalenci se fortiter ac honori 
fic^ gessit, ac etiam apud Bergen in Belgio cum per Hispanos 
obsideretur, invictissimse fortitudinis juvenem in deferisione 
ejusdem se prsebuit : 

" Qui etiam in expugnationis Kinsalensis die prima acie juxta 
oppidum propissime constitutus fuerat, Hispanosque ex eo 
oppido sepius eodern die prosilientes, fortissime felicissimeque, 
et ad maximam totius exercitus incolumitatem repulit et profli- 
gavit : 

" Sciatis igitur quod nos, intuitu preemissorum, dominum 
Thomam Roper, militem, &c." 

( " Whereas Thomas Roper, knight, one of our privy coun 
cillors of our kingdom of Ireland, long since hath been known 
unto us, famous with the splendour of his warlike virtue ; as 
who, by the many achievements valiantly performed by him in 
the late war of this kingdom, hath gained the eminent repute 
both of a stout soldier and a discreet commander; whose 
valour chiefly appeared in his retreat near Le Boyle in our 
province of Connaught, where, with very few horse, he undaunt 
edly charged great troops of the horse of the enemy, who, in a 
hostile manner, foraged the very bowels of the kingdom, and by 
his wisdom made such a singular retreat, that he not only 
saved himself and his men, but also delivered the whole army 
from great danger, and slew very many of his enemies : 

" Who also, when our province of Ulster was all on fire with 
war, being one out of many, was, for the tried resolution of his 
mind, chosen by the right honourable the earl of Essex, then 

VOL. n. 2 B 



370 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

general of the army, to undertake a duel with Makal, one 
of the stoutest captains in the army of Tyrone, had not the said 
Makal declined to expose himself to the appointed duel : 

" And also when the aforesaid Thomas Roper, in the late war 
in the kingdom of France at Brest, by exposing himself to the 
greatest perils, and shedding of his own blood, demonstrated 
his courage to be unconquerable : 

"Who also, in the voyage to Portugal, behaved himself 
valiantly and honourably, as also at Bergen in the Netherlands, 
when it w r as besieged by the Spaniards, approved himself a 
young man of invincible valour in the defence thereof : 

" Who also, in the day wherein Kinsale was assaulted, was 
placed in the first rank, nearest of all unto the town ; and, with 
no less success than valour, to the great safety of the whole 
army, beat back and put to flight the Spaniards, who in the 
same day made several sallies out of the town : 

" Know, therefore, that we, in intuition of the premises, have 
appointed the aforesaid Thomas Roper, knight, &c.") 

Then followeth his patent, wherein king Charles, in the third 
of his reign, created him Baron of Bauntree, and Viscount Bal- 
tinglasse in Ireland. 

I will only add, from exact intelligence, that he was a prin 
cipal means to break the hearts of Irish rebels ; for whereas 
formerly the English were loaded with their own clothes, so 
that their slipping into bogs did make them, and the stopping of 
their breeches did keep them prisoners, therein ; he first being 
then a commander, put himself into Irish trowsers, and was 
imitated first by all his officers, then soldiers ; so that thus 
habited they made the more effectual execution on their ene 
mies. He died at Roper s Rest, anno Domini 164 . ; and was 
buried with Anne his wife (daughter to Sir Henry Harrington) 
in Saint John s church in Dublin. 

SEAMEN. 

I behold these seamen as the sea itself, and suspect, if I 
launch far therein, I shall see land no more : besides, I know 
there be many laws made against forestallers, and would be 
loath to fall under that penalty, for preventing the pains of 
some able perosn, a member of the Trinity-house, who may 
write a just tract thereof. 

CIVILIANS. 

Sir HENRY MARTIN, Knight, was born in this city, where 
his father left him forty pounds a year ; and he used merrily to 
say, that if his father had left him fourscore, he would never 
have been a scholar, but lived on his lands ; whereas this being 
(though a large encouragement, but) a scant maintenance, he 
plied his book for a better livelihood. He was bred a fellow in 



CIVILIANS PHYSICIANS. 37 1 

New College in Oxford ; and, by the advice of bishop 
Andrews, addressed himself to the study of the civil law. 

By the advice of the said bishop, Master Martin had weekly 
transmitted unto him, from some proctors at Lambeth, the 
brief heads of the most important causes which were to be tried 
in the high commission. Then, with some of his familiar friends 
in that faculty, they privately pleaded those causes amongst 
themselves, acting in their chamber what was done in the court. 
But Mr. Martin, making it his work, exceeded the rest in am 
plifying and aggravating any fault, moving of anger and indig 
nation against the guilt thereof, or else in extenuating and ex 
cusing it, procure pity, obtain pardon, or at least prevail for a 
lighter punishment. Some years he spent in this personated 
pleading, to enable himself against he was really called to that 
profession. 

Hence it was that afterwards he became so eminent an ad 
vocate in the high commission, that no cause could come amiss 
to him ; for he was not to make new armour, but only to put it 
on, and buckle it ; not to invent, but apply arguments to his 
client. He was at last knighted, and made judge of the prero 
gative for probate of wills, and also of the admiralty in causes 
concerning foreign traffic ; so that, as king James said pleasantly, 
" he was a mighty monarch in his jurisdiction over land and sea, 
the living and dead." He died, very aged and wealthy, anno 
Domini 1642. 

PHYSICIANS. 

[REM.] RICHARDUS ANGLICUS was certainly a man of 
merit, being eminently so denominated by foreigners (amongst 
whom he conversed) from his country ; and he who had our 
nation for his name, cannot have less than London for his 
lodging in this our CATALOGUE OF WORTHIES. He is said to 
have studied first in Oxford, then in Paris, where he so profited 
in the faculty of physic, that he is counted, by Simphorianus 
Champerius* (a stranger to our nation, and therefore free from 
flattery), one of the most eminent writers in that profession. 
Now, because he was the first Englishman whom I find famous 
in that calling, may the reader be pleased with a receipt of the 
several names of the books left by him to posterity : 1 . "A 
Tractate of Urins :" 2. " Of the Rules of Urins :" 3. Of the 
Signs of Diseases:" 4. "Of Prognostick Signs:" 5. "Of 
Letting Bloud:" 6. " Of Anatomy according to Galen :" 7- "Of 
Feavors:" 8. "A Correction of Alchymy:" 9. " A Mirour of 
Alchymy:" 10. "Of Physick: 11. "Repressive:" 12. "Of the 
Signs of Feavorsf." 

Leland reporteth, that, besides these, he wrote other works, 

* In tractatu quinto de ejus Artis Scriptoribus. 

t Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iii. n. 92; and Pits, in anno 1230. 

2 B 2 



372 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

which the envy of time hath denied unto us. He flourished 
about the year of our Lord 1230. 

JOHN PHREAS was born in this city, bred fellow of Baliol 
college in Oxford, where he contracted familiarity with his 
colleague and Maecenas, J. Tiptoft earl of Worcester.* He 
afterwards travelled into Italv, and at Ferrara was a constant 

* 

auditor of Gwarinus, an old man and famous philosopher. 

Hitherto our Phreas made use only of his ears ; hereafter of 
his tongue, when of hearer he turned a teacher ; and see the 
stairs whereby he ascended: 1. He read Physic at Ferrara, 
concerning medicinal herbs : 2. Then at Florence, well esteemed 
by the duke thereof: 3. Then at Padua (beneath Florence in 
beauty, above it in learning), an university where he proceeded 
doctor of physic : 4. Then at Rome, where he was gracious 
with Pope Paul the Second, dedicating unto him many books 
translated out of Greek. 

The Pope rewarded him with the bishopric of Bath and 
Wells ;f dying before his consecration, poisoned (as is vehe 
mently suspected) by some who maligned his merit : 

" Heu mihi quod nullis livor medicabilis herbis !" 

Solomon himself, who wrote of all simples, from "the Cedar 
in Lebanus, to the Hyssop on the wall/ 5 J could find no defen- 
sative against it; which made him cry out, "But who can stand 
before envy }"\ No wonder, therefore, if our Phreas, (though 
a skilful botanist) found men s malice mortal unto him. He 
died at Rome, anno Domini 1465 ; and Leland s commendation 
of him may serve for his epitaph, if but " Hie jacet Johannes, 
Phreas " be prefixed before it ; " qui primus Anglorum erat, qui 
propulsa barbaric, patriam honesto labore bonis literis restituit." 

ANDREW BORDE, doctor of physic, was (I conceive) bred in 
Oxford, because I find his book, called "The Breviary of 
Health," examined by that university. He was physician to 
king Henry the Eighth, and was esteemed a great scholar in that 
age. I am confident his book was the first written of that faculty 
in English, and dedicated to the college of physicians in. 
London. 

Take a taste out of the beginning of his dedicatory epistle : 
"Egregious" doctors and masters of the eximious and arcane 
science of physic, of your urbanity exasperate not yourselves 
against me for making this little volume of physic, &c." 

Indeed his book contains plain matter under hard words ; and 
was accounted such a jewel in that age (things whilst the first 
are esteemed the best in all kinds) that it was printed, " cum 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. viii. n. 38. f Idem, ibidem, 

t 1 Kings iv. 33. Proverbs xxvii. 4. 



WRITERS. 373 

privilegio ad imprimendum solum," for William Middleton, 
anno 1548. He died, as I collect, in the reign of queen Mary. 

WRITERS. 

NOTHELMUS OP LONDON.* Having casually let slip his 
fore-lock., I mean his episcopal capacity (being successively bishop 
of London and archbishop of Canterbury) under which he ought 
to be entered, we are fain to lay hold on his hind part (that his 
memory may not escape us), taking notice of him as a writer. 
In his age shined a constellation of three learned men, Bede, 
Alcuinus, and our Nothelme, whom the two former, by their 
letters, invited to write (a performance proper for his pen) the 
guests of Gregory the Great, and the disciples sent by him, with 
Austin the monk, for the conversion of Britain. Nothelme, the 
more effectually to enable himself for this work, went to Rome, 
obtained leave from Pope Gregory the Second to peruse his 
records ; then sent his completed collections to Bede, to be in 
serted in his " Church History." Bede, in gratitude, (accord 
ing to the courteous custom of the learned exchange) dedicated 
to him his Thirty Questions on the Books of Kings. His death 
happened anno Domini 739. 

WILLIAM FITZ-STEPHEN was descended, saith Leland, of 
Norman nobility, but born in this city, and bred a monk in 
Canterbury. He wrote many learned works ; and one in Latin, 
of the description of London, since commendably (because 
rare to come by) translated and added to the " Survey of 
London." 

Say not that London then was but the suburbs to the London 
now, for the bigness and populousness thereof; seeing, in 
Fitz-Stephen s time, it accounted thirteen conventual, and a 
hundred and six-and-thirty parochial churches, not producing so 
many at this day; so that it seems, though there be more bodies 
of men, there be fewer houses of God therein. 

As for the populousness thereof in his time, it was able to set 
forth sixty thousand foot, which I believe it may treble in our 
time. It could also then raise twenty thousand horsemen, which 
would pose it at this day to perform. But, as railing Rabshekah 
made Jerusalem weaker [not able to set two thousand riders on 
horses], so possibly Fitz- Stephen might make London stronger 
than it was. I hope one may safely wish this city may be better 
in holiness, as bigger in houses, than it was when Fitz-Ste^hen 
flourished, 1190. 

ALBRICIUS of LONDON. Leland maketh him a native of this 
city, and signally learned ; though little is extant of his writ 
ings, save a work of " the Original of Heathen Gods/ 3 Herein 

* Bale, de Scriploribus Britannicis, Cent. ii. n. 8. 



374 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

he sheweth how mankind having, by error and ignorance, left 
and lost the true God, multiplied deities, that a mock-infinite 
(viz. what was but indefinite in number) should supply His place 
who was infinite in nature. Albricius flourished anno Domini 
1217. 

[REM.] WILLIAM SENGHAM, born of mean but honest 
parents, being one of a meek nature and quick wit, was brought 
up in learning, wherein he attained to great perfection. He 
wrote many books ; and one, " de Fide et Legibus," wherein 
Bale* highly praiseth this passage : " There is no other law 
for the salvation of men, besides the Gospel of Christ our 
Lord." 

Now although this be but a plain expression of the common 
truth, yet was it beheld as an oracle in that ignorant age. 
Thus a beam of noon day, might it be seen at midnight, would 
shine as the sun itself. Besides, these words were uttered in 
that age, when impudent friars began to obtrude on the world a 
fifth-forged Gospel, consisting of superstitious ceremonies, and 
called /Eternum Evangelium, which did much mischief in the 
church amongst credulous men. This William is supposed by 
some an Augustinian friar, who flourished anno Domini 1260. 

[REM.] LAURENTIUS ANGLICUS was certainly an Eng 
lishman, and probably a Londoner ; but brought up and living 
most of his time in Paris, where he was master of the college 
which had an Englishman for the sign thereof, t Hence I col 
lect it for building little better than our ordinary inns for enter 
tainment, where probably our countrymen had their lodgings 
for nothing. This Laurence, being a learned and pious person, 
stoutly opposed that mock Gospel commonly called Evangelium 
Sternum,! with the mendicant friars the champions thereof. 
He wrote a smart book " contra Pseudo-prcedicatores ;" but 
afterwards, being frightened with the Pope s thunderbolts and 
the friars threatenings, he cowardly recanted. But w r hat saith 
Solomon, " A just man falleth seven times ;" [the vulgar La 
tin addeth in die, in one day], and riseth again, as we hope this 
Laurence did, who flourished anno Domini 1260. 

NICHOLAS LYRE|| was (as Barnabas a Jew Cypriot, and Saul 
a Jew Cicilian) a Jew Englishman, the first by nation, the se 
cond by nativity. He had the Rabbins at his fingers ends; but 
conversed so long with, that at last he was converted by, some 
Franciscans to be a Christian ; and I behold Nicholas [con 
queror of his people] as his font name then given him, as pre- 
dictory of those victories he afterwards got, by his disputings 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iv. n. 17. f Ibid. Cent. iv. n. 30. 

J See more hereof in the life of John Driton, in Sussex. F. 

Proverbs xxiv. 15. [| Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent, v, n, 12, 



WRITERS. 375 

and writings, over his own countrymen. Nor doth the church 
of God more complain of Nicholas, that proselyte of Antioch, 
the last of the seven deacons, and first founder of the Nicholai- 
tans whom God hated, than it cloth commend our Nicholas, who 
vigorously confuted the Jews ; who expect the rising of the sun 
in the afternoon, waiting for Messias still to come. 

I read, how, some fifty years before, Henry the Third found 
ed a house called Domus Conversorum (where now the office of 
the Rolls is kept in Chancery-lane) where converted Jews were 
accommodated with lodging, and a small salary. But I believe 
Lyre made no use thereof, contenting himself to live first in 
Oxford, then in Paris, a Franciscan friar ; and wrote " Com 
ments on all the Old and New-Testament ;" whereof so differ 
ent the editions, that I am certainly informed, one is so bad, 
one can hardly give too little ; and one is so good, one can 
hardly give too much for it. Though sometimes he may be 
wide of the mark, and this harp be out of tune, yet uncharitable 
their censure of " Lyra delirat," whilst Luther highly praiseth- 
him, because his wanton wit did not gad after empty allegories, 
but, with the good housekeeper, stays at home ; keeping himself 
close to the text in his literal interpretations.* Now though 
there were many Jewish synagogues in England (at York, Cam 
bridge, Northampton, &c.) ; yet, the Old Jewry in London 
. equalling all the rest in numerousness, Lyre s birth is here as 
signed with best assurance, though dying in Paris about the 
year 1340. 

BANKINUS of LONDON, not Bancks of London (who taught 
his horse reason, to perform feats above belief,) but one of 
higher parts, and worse employed. Being an Augustinian friar, 
he set himself wholly to suppress the poor Wickliffites ; and, 
being ready to dispute against them in a public council, was 
taken off in his full speed with the following accident, worthy of 
the reader s observation : 

" Sed terree-motus, justissima summi Dei vindicta, subito ex- 
ortus, diruptis passim domorum eedificiis, immanes eorum im 
petus fregit, ac vires infirmavit ;" (but an earthquake, by the 
just revenge of the most high God, suddenly arising, by break 
ing asunder the buildings of the houses, brake their cruel as 
saults, and weakened their forces. t) 

This, if literally true, deserved a downright (and not only so 
slenting a) mention. But, hitherto meeting it in no other au 
thor, I begin to suspect it meant metaphorically of some con 
sternation of mind, wherewith God s restraining grace charmed 
the adversaries of the truth. Bankinus flourished under king 
Richard the Second, anno 1382. 

* In his comment on the Second, and again on the Ninth, chapter of Genesis, 
f Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. vi. n. 97. 



376 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

ROBERT IVORY was, saith Leland, none of the meanest na 
tives of this city; a Carmelite, and president general of his 
order ; D. D. in Cambridge. He wrote several books ; and, 
prece et precio, procured many more, wherewith he adorned 
the library of White -friars in Fleet-street.* He died Novem 
ber the fifth, 1392. 

[REM.] JULIANA BARNES was born ex antiqud et illustri 
domo. Understand it not in the sense wherein the same was 
said of a certain Pope, born in a ruinous cottage, where the sun 
did shine through the rotten walls and roof thereof. But in 
deed she was descended of a respectable family, though I, not 
able to find the place, am fain to use my marginal mark of 
greatest uncertainty. 

She was the Diana of her age for hunting and hawking; 
skilful also in fishing, and wrote three books of these exercises, 
commending the practice thereof to the gentry of England.f 

The city of Leyden is scited in the very bottom of the Low 
Countries ; so that the water settled there would be soon sub 
ject to putrefaction, were it not by engines forced up, that it 
might fall, and so by constant motion kept from corruption. 
Idleness will betray noble men s minds to the same mischief, if 
some ingenious industry be not used for their employment. 

Our Julian also wrote a book of heraldry. Say not the 
needle is the most proper pen for the woman ; and that she 
ought to meddle with making no coats, save such as Dorcas 
made for the widows, seeing their sex may be not only pardon 
ed, but praised for such lawful diversions. No gentleman will 
severely censure the faults in her heraldry ; but rather imitate 
Julius Scaliger, who, passing his verdict on all poets, and com 
ing to do the like on Sulpitia a Roman poetess (living under 
Domitian), thus courteously concludeth, " Ut tarn laudabilis 
Heroines ratio habeatur, non ausim objicere ei judicii severita- 
tem/ J She flourished, anno Domini 1460, under king Henry 
the Sixth. 

ROBERT FABIAN was born and bred in this city, whereof he 
became sheriff 1493. Treating his guests with good cheer and 
welcome, he doubled his dishes with pleasant discourse, being 
an excellent historian, witness two chronicles of his own writing : 
1. From Brutus to the death of king Henry the Second; 2. 
From the first of king Richard, to the death of king Henry the 
Seventh. 

He was also an excellent poet, both in Latin, French, and 

T~! 1*1 * ^ y J 

English. 

Bale, de Scriptoribus Brit., Cent. vi. n. 96. f Idem, Cent. viii. n. 33. 

De Arte Poetica, liber Hyper-Criticus, capite sexto. 
Bale, Cent. viii. n. 62. ; et J. Pits, anno 1512. 



WRITERS. 377 

A modern master wit,* in the contest betwixt the poets of 
our age for the laurel, maketh Apollo to adjudge it to an alder 
man of London, "because to have most wealth was a sign of 
most wit." But, had the scene of this competition been laid 
seven-score years since, and the same remitted to the umpirage 
of Apollo, in sober sadness he would have given the laurel to 
this our alderman. 

As for his histories, if the whole strain of them doth \ovcivi,eiv, 
it must be indulged to him that followed the genius of his own 
education. He died at London, 1512; and was buried in the 
church of All-hallows, where he hath a tedious and barbarous 
epitaph ;f as commonly (reader, I should be glad to have my 
observation confuted) who hath worse poetry than poets on 
their monuments ? After his death, cardinal Wolsey caused so 
many copies of this book as he could come by to be 
burnt, because therein he had opened the coffers of the church 
too wide, and made too clear discovery of the revenues of the 
clergy.! 

THOMAS LUPSET was born in this city, and was related to 
most English and some foreign learned eminencies of his age : 
1. Bred a child in the house of dean Colet: 2. Under William 
Lilly in St. Paul s school: 3. Sent to Oxford, where he became 
Greek professor : 4. Resigns his place to his friend Ludovicus 
Vives: 5. Travelled into Italy, and at Padua was familiar with 
cardinal Pole : 6. Was known unto Erasmus, who giveth him 
this character, " IIujus ingenio nihil gratius, nihil amantius : " 7 
Intended divinity diverted by cardinal Wolsey : 8. At Paris was 
tutor to Thomas Winter, a ward to the cardinal : 9. Returning 
into England, was known to king Henry the Eighth : 10. Began 
to grow into his favour, when cut off with a consumption, 1532, 
in the prime of his life. 

He died in London ; and lieth buried in the church of Saint 
Alphage nigh Cripplegate, without a monument. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

JOHN RASTALL was a citizen and printer of London ; by mar 
riage a-kin to Sir Thomas More;l| and when the said Sir Tho 
mas and bishop Fisher wrote in defence of purgatory, to prove 
it by Scripture, Rastall undertook to maintain it by reason. 
Surely he that buys the two former books deserveth to have this 
last given him, to make him a saver. Some will say, the for 
mer two endeavoured to prove the fire, and Rastall the smoke 
of purgatory. But, to pass by his works in divinity, he was a 
good mathematician ; and made a comedy of Europe, Asia, and 

* Sir John Suckling. f Exemplified in Stow s Survey, p. 214. 

% Bale, ut prius. Bale, and Pits. 

II Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. viii. n. 74. 



378 WORTHIES OP LONDON. 

Africa, which, my author saith,* was very witty, and very 
large ; and I can believe the latter, seeing he had three parts of 
the world for his subject ; and how long would it have been had 
America been added ? He wrote a book against John Frith ; 
but afterwards (convinced with his adversary s arguments) re 
canted it of his own accord ; the cause why we have placed him 
since the Reformation. He wrote a book of " the Terms of 
Law," and made an Index to Justice Fitz-Herbert ; yea, I 
behold this John as father to Rastall the famous lawyer, of 
whom before. t He died and was buried at London 1536. 

EDWARD HALL. We may trace him from his cradle to his 
coffin, as followeth : 1. He was a citizen of London by his 
birth.J 2. He was bred a scholar at Eton. 3. Thence he 
removed, and was one of the foundation of King s College. 
4. Thence he went to Gray s-Inn, and studied the municipal 
law. 5. He became common-sergeant of London ; for the well 
discharging whereof, he, 6. Was advanced to be one of the judges 
in the sheriff s court. 7- Wrote an elegant history of the wars of 
York and Lancaster, from king Henry the Fourth, till the end of 
king Henry the Eighth. || 8. Died, a very aged man, 1547- 

He was, as by some passages in his book may appear, in that 
age well affected to the Reformation. He lieth buried in the 
church of Saint Sithes^f (contracted, I think, for Saint Osith s), 
where I cannot recover any epitaph upon him. 

WILLIAM FULKE, D. D. was born in this city; bred first 
fellow of Saint John s, then master of Pembroke-hall in 
Cambridge.** His studies were suitable to his years : when 
young, a good philosopher, (witness his book of Meteors) ; after 
wards his endeavours ascended from the middle region of the air 
to the highest heavens, when he became a pious and solid divine. 

Now the Romanists, seeing they could no longer blind-fold 
their laity from the Scriptures, resolved to fit them with false 
spectacles, and set forth the Rhemish translation ; which by 
doctor Fulke was learnedly confuted, though he never attained 
any great preferment in the church. 

Here it is worth our pains to peruse the immediate succession 
of masters in Pembroke-hall, because unparalleled in any English 
foundation ; Edmund Grindall, archbishop of Canterbury; Mat 
thew Hutton, archbishop of York ; John Whitgift, archbishop of 
Canterbury; John Young, bishop of Rochester ; William Fulke, 
D.D. ; Lancelot Andrews, bishop of Winchester ; Samuel Hars- 
net, archbishop of York ; Nicholas Felton, bishop of Ely. 

* Bale, ut prius. ( In this city, title, " Writers on the Law." 

: Stow s Survey, p. 92. Hatcher s MS. of King s College. 

II Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. ix. 

11 Stow s Survey, p. 2/6. ** Parker, in his Scheliton Cant. 



WRITERS. 379 

Here, though all the rest were episcopated, doctor Fulke was 
but doctor Fulke still, though a man of great merit. This pro 
ceeded not from any disaffection in him to the hierarchy (as 
some would fain suggest) ; but principally from his love of 
privacy, and place of Margaret professor, wherein he died anno 
Domini 1589. 

EDMOND SPENSER, born in this city,* was brought up in 
Pembroke-hall in Cambridge, where he became an excellent 
scholar ; but especially most happy in English poetry, as his 
works do declare ; in which the many Chaucerisms used (for I 
will not say affected by him) are thought by the ignorant to be 
blemishes, known by the learned to be beauties, to his book ; 
which notwithstanding had been more saleable, if more con 
formed to our modern language. 

There passeth a story commonly told and believed, that Spen 
ser presenting his poems to queen Elizabeth, she, highly 
affected therewith, commanded the lord Cecil, her treasurer, 
to give him a hundred pounds ; and when the treasurer (a good 
steward of the queen s money) alleged that sum was too 
much ; " Then give him/ quoth the queen, " what is reason ; " 
to which the lord consented ; but was so busied, belike, about 
matters of higher concernment, that Spenser received no 
reward ; whereupon he presented this petition in a small piece 
of paper to the queen in her progress : 

" I was promis d on a time, 
To have reason for my rhyme ; 
From that time unto this season, 
I receiv d nor rhyme nor reason." 

Hereupon the queen gave strict order (not without some check 
to her treasurer) for the present payment of the hundred pounds 
she first intended unto him. 

He afterwards went over into Ireland, secretary to the lord 
Gray, lord deputy thereof; and though that his office under his 
lord was lucrative, yet got he no estate ; but, saith my author, 
" peculiar! poetis fato, semper cum paupertate conflictatus est."f 
So that it fared little better with him than with William Xilan- 
der the German (a most excellent linguist, antiquary, philoso 
pher, and mathematician,) who was so poor, that (as Thuanus 
saith) he was thought, " fami non fame scribere."J 

Returning into England, he was robbed by the rebels of that 
little he had ; and, dying for grief in great want, anno 1598, 
was honourably buried nigh Chaucer in Westminster, where this 
distich concludeth his epitaph on his monument : 

Anglica te vivo vixit plausitque poesis, 

Nunc moritura timel te inoriente mori. 
" Whilst thou didst live, liv d English poetry, 

Which fears, now thou art dead, that she shall die." 

* Camden s Elizabeth, in anno 1598. f Idem, ibidem. 

J Obit. Virorum Doctorum, anno 1576. 



380 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

Nor must we forget, that the expense of his funeral and mo 
nument was defrayed at the sole charge of Robert, first of that 
name, earl of Essex. 

JOHN STOW, son of Thomas Stow, who died anno 1559, 
grandchild to Thomas Stow, who died 1526 (both citizens of 
London, and buried in Saint Michael s in Cornhill,) was born 
in this city, bred at learning no higher than a good grammar- 
scholar ; yet he became a painful, faithful, and (the result of 
both) useful historian. 

Here, to prevent mistake by the homonymy of names, I re 
quest the reader to take special notice of three brace of English 
writers : 

1. Sir Thomas (commonly with the addition of de la) More., 
who lived under, and wrote the life of, king Edward the Second. 
2. Sir Thomas More, the witty and learned chancellor of 
England. 

1. John Leland, bred in Oxford, the most exquisite gram 
marian of his age, who nourished anno 1428. 2. John Leland, 
bred in Cambridge, the most eminent antiquary under king 
Henry the Eighth. 

1. John Stow, a Benedictine monk of Norwich, anno 1440, 
who wrote various collections, much cited by Caius in his 
History of Cambridge. 2. John Stoiv, this Londoner, and 
historian. 

I confess, I have heard him often accused, that (as learned 
Guicciardini is charged for telling magnarum rerum minutias) 
he reporteth res in se minutas, toys and trifles, being such a 
smell-feast, that he cannot pass by Guildhall, but his pen must 
taste of the good cheer therein. However, this must be in 
dulged to his education ; so hard it is for a citizen to write a 
history, but that the fur of his gown will be felt therein. Sure 
I am, our most elegant historians who have wrote since his time 
(Sir Francis Bacon, Master Camden, &c.) though throwing 
away the basket, have taken the fruit ; though not mentioning 
his name, making use of his endeavours. Let me add of John 
Stow, that (however he kept tune) he kept time very well, no 
author being more accurate in the notation thereof. 

Besides his " Chronicle of England," he hath a large " Sur 
vey of London ;" and I believe no city in Christendom, Rome 
alone excepted, hath so great a volume extant thereof. Plato 
was used to say, " That many good laws were made, but still 
one was wanting ; viz. a law to put all those good laws in ex 
ecution." Thus the citizens of London have erected many 
fair monuments to perpetuate their memories ; but still there 
wanted a monument to continue the memory of their monu 
ments (subject by time, and otherwise, to be defaced) which at 
last by John Stow was industriously performed. 

He died in the eightieth year of his age, April 5, 1605 ; and 



WRITERS. 381 

is buried at the upper end of the north isle of the choir of 
St. Andrew s Undershaft ;* his Chronicle since continued by 
another, whose additions are the lively emblem of the times 
he writeth of, as far short of Master Stow in goodness, 
as our age is of the integrity and charity of those which went 
before it. 

GILES FLETCHER was bom in this city,f son to Giles 
Fletcher, doctor in law, and ambassador into Russia ; of whom 
formerly in Kent. From Westminster school he was chosen 
first scholar, then fellow of Trinity college in Cambridge : one 
equally beloved of the Muses and the Graces, having a sanc 
tified wit ; witness his worthy poem, intituled " Christ s Vic 
tory/ made by him being but bachelor of arts, discovering the 
piety of a saint, and divinity of a doctor. He afterward applied 
himself to school divinity (cross to the grain of his genius as 
some conceive), and attained to good skill therein. When he 
preached at St. Mary s, his prayer before his sermon usually 
consisted of one entire allegory, not driven, but led on, most 
proper in all particulars. He was at last (by exchange of his 
living) settled in Suffolk, which hath the best and worst air in 
England ; best about Bury, and worst on the sea-side, where 
Master Fletcher was beneficed. His clownish and low-parted 
parishioners (having nothing but their shoes high about them) 
valued not their pastor according to his worth ; which disposed 
him to melancholy, and hastened his dissolution. I behold the 
life of this learned poet, like those half-verses in Virgil s 
JEneid, broken off in the middle, seeing he might have dou 
bled his days according to the ordinary course of nature ; 
whose death happened about the year 162 .. He had another 
brother, Phineas Fletcher, fellow of King s college in Cambridge, 
and beneficed also in Norfolk ; a most excellent poet, witness his 

Purple Island," and several other pieces of great ingenuity. 



ct 



JOHN DONNE was born in this city, of wealthy parentage, 
extracted out of Wales ; one of an excellent wit, large travel, 
and choice experience. After many vicissitudes in his youth, 
his reduced age was honoured with the doctorship of divinity, 
and deanery of Saint Paul s. 

Should I endeavour to deliver his exact character, I (who 
willingly would not do any wrong) should do a fourfold injury : 
], to his worthy memory,, whose merit my pen is unable to 
express : 2, to myself, in undertaking what I am not sufficient 
to perform : 3, to the reader, first in raising, then in frustrating 
his expectation : 4, to my deservedly honoured Master Isaac 
Walton, by whom his life is so learnedly written. 

It is enough for me to observe, he died March 31, anno Do 
mini 1631 ; and lieth buried in Saint Paul s, under an inge- 

" In his own Survey of London (continued after his death), p. 152. 

I So was I informed by Mr. John Rainsey, who married his relict. F. 



382 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

nious and choice monument, neither so costly as to occasion 
envy, nor so common as to cause contempt. 

ROMISH EXILE WRITERS. 

JOHN HEIWOOD was born in London,* and was most fami 
liar with Sir Thomas More, whom he much resembled in quick 
ness of parts, both undervaluing their friend to their jest, and 
having " ingenium non edentulum, sed mordax." I may safely 
write of him, what he pleasantly writes of himself ; f that he 
applied mirth more than thrift ; made many plays, and did few 
good works."f He hath printed many English proverbial epi 
grams ; and his " Monumenta Literaria " are said to be " non 
tarn labore condita, quam lepore condita." He was highly in 
favour with queen Mary ; and, after her death, fled for religion 
beyond the seas. 

It is much, that one so fanciful should be so conscientious. 
He lived, and (for ought I find) died at Mechlin, about the 
year 1566. Gasper Heiwood, his son, was a great Jesuit, and 
executed here in queen Elizabeth s reign. 

MAURICE CHAMNEE, most probably born in this city, was 
bred a friar in Charter-house, now called Sutton s hospital. He 
was imprisoned, for refusing the oath of supremacy, with eigh 
teen of his order, all which lost their lives for their obstinacy, 
whilst our Maurice (like Job s messenger) ff only escaped alone " 
to tell of his fellows misfortune, and write the history of the 
execution. Some of Chamnee s party report to his praise, " that 
martyrdom was only wanting to him, and not he to martyr 
dom.":): Others more truly tax him, for warping to the will of 
king Henry the Eighth, not so much to decline his own death, 
as to preserve his convent from destruction, who sped in the 
first, and failed in the latter. However, fearing some after-claps, 
he fled beyond the seas, passing the rest of his life in the Low 
Countries, dying anno Domini 1581. 

EDMUND CAMPIAN was born in this city, and bred fellow in 
Saint John s college in Oxford, where he became proctor anno 
1568, when queen Elizabeth visited that university. Being 
made deacon by the Protestant church, he afterwards re 
nounced that order, and fled beyond the seas. A man of excel 
lent parts ; though he who rode post to tell him so, might come too 
late to bring him tidings thereof; being such a valuer of him 
self, that he swelled every drop of his ability into a bubble by 
his vain ostentation. And indeed few who were reputed scho 
lars, had more of Latin, or less of Greek, than he had. 

He was sent over with father Parsons into England, to reduce 
it to the church of Rome ; to this purpose he set forth his " Ten 

* Pits, de Angliae Scriptoribus, anno 1556. 

In his Five Hundred of Epigrams, num. 100. 
J Pits, de Scriptoribus Anglise, in anno 1581. Ibid. 



WRITERS. 383 

Reasons/ so purely for Latin, so plainly and pithily penned, that 
they were very taking, and fetched over many (neuters before) 
to his persuasion. 

It was not long before he was caught by the setters of the 
secretary Walsingham, and brought to the Tower, where one of 
his own religion said, that he was " exquisitissimis cruciatibus 
tortus," (racked with most exquisite torments.*) 

Yet the lieutenant of the Tower truly told him, " that he had 
rather seen than felt the rack,t being so favourably used therein, 
that, being taken off, he did presently go to his lodging without 
help, and used his hands in writing. Besides, (as Campian con 
fessed) he was not examined upon any point of religion, but 
only upon matters of state. 

Some days after he was engaged in four solemn disputations, 
to make good that bold challenge he had made against all 
Protestants: Place, the chapel in the Tower : Auditors/ the 
lieutenant of the Tower ; Mr. Bele, clerk of the council ; with 
many Protestants and Papists. 

Question 1. Aug. 31, 1581, (opposers, Alexander Nowell, 

dean of Paul s, and William Day, dean of Windsor.) 
" Whether the Protestants had cut off many goodly and prin 
cipal parts of Scripture from the body thereof ?" Cam- 
pian s answer in the affirmative. 
Question 2. Sept. 18, (opposers, William Fulk, D. D., and 

Roger Goad, D. D.) 
" Whether the Catholic church be not properly invisible ?" 

Campian s answer in the negative. 
Question 3. Sept. 23, (opposers, William Fulk, D. D., and 

Roger Goad, D. D.) 

" Whether Christ be in the Sacrament substantially very 
God and man in his natural body?" And "Whether, 
after the consecration, the bread and wine are transub 
stantiated?" Campian s answer in the affirmative. 
Question 4. Sept. 27, (opposers, John Walker and William 

Clarke.) 

" Whether the Scriptures contain sufficient doctrine for 
our salvation ?" And " Whether faith only justified! ?" 
Campian s answer in the negative. 

An authentic author J giveth this impartial account of Campian 
in his disputation, " ad disputandum productus, expectationem 
concitatam segre sustinuit/ and, in plain truth, no man did ever 
boast more when he put on his armour, or had cause to boast 
less when he put it off. Within a few days, the queen was ne 
cessitated, for her own security, to make him the subject of 

* Pits, cle Anglioe Scriptoribus, in anno 1581. 

| In the Prince s Report of the first day s conference, fol. 1. 

j Camden, in his Elizabeth, anno 1580. 



384 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

severity, by whose laws he was executed in the following 
December. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

THOMAS POPE, Knight, was born in this city, as my worthy 
friend Doctor Seth Ward, the head, and others of the Society of 
Trinity College in Oxford, have informed me. I behold him as 
Fortunes sucefabrum, the smith who (by God s blessing) ham 
mered out his own fortune without any patrimonial advantage. 
Indeed, he lived in an age which one may call the harvest of 
wealth, wherein any that would work might get good wages, at 
the dissolution of abbeys. 

Herein he was much employed, being, under the lord Crom 
well, an instrument of the second magnitude, and lost nothing 
by his activity therein. However, by all the printed books of 
that age, he appeareth one of a candid carriage ; and in this 
respect stands sole and single by himself, that, of the abbey- 
lands which he received, he refunded a considerable proportion 
for the building and endowing of Trinity College in Oxford. 
He died, as I collect, about the beginning of the reign of queen 
Elizabeth. 

There are in Oxfordshire many descendants from him, con 
tinuing in a worshipful estate, on the same token, that king- 
James came in progress to the house of Sir William Pope, 
knight, when his lady was lately delivered of a daughter, which 
babe was presented to king James with this paper of verses in 
her hand ; which because they pleased the king, I hope they 
will not displease the reader : 

" See this little mistress here, 
Did never sit in Peter s chair ; 
Or a triple crown did wear, 

And yet she is a Pope. 
No benefice she ever sold, 
Nor did dispence with sins for gold, 
She hardly is a sevenight old, 

And yet she is a Pope, 
No King her feet did ever kiss, 
Or had from her worse look then this ; 
Nor did she ever hope, 
To saint one with a rope, 
And yet she is a Pope. 

A female Pope, you ll say ; a second Joan 9 
No, sure ; she is Pope Innocent, or none. 

I behold the earl of Down in Ireland (but living in Oxford 
shire) the chief of the family. 

THOMAS CURSON, born in Allhallows, Lombard-street, ar 
mourer, dwelt without Bishopsgate. It happened that a stage- 
player borrowed a rusty musket, which had lain long leger in 
his shop : now, though his part was comical, he therewith acted 



BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 385 

an unexpected tragedy, killing one of the standers-by, the gun 
casually going off on the stage, which he suspected not to be 
charged. 

Oh the difference of divers men in the tenderness of their con 
sciences ! Some are scarce touched with a wound, whilst others 
are wounded with a touch therein. This poor armourer was 
highly afflicted therewith, though done against his will, yea with 
out his knowledge, in his absence, by another, out of mere 
chance. Hereupon he resolved to give all his estate to pious 
uses. No sooner had he gotten a round sum, but presently he 
posted with it in his apron to the court of aldermen, and was in 
>ain till by their direction he had settled it for the relief of the poor 
n his own and other parishes ; and disposed of some hundreds 
)f pounds accordingly, as I am credibly informed by the then 
churchwardens* of the said parish. Thus, as he conceived 
himself casually (though at great distance) to have occasioned 
the death of one, he was the immediate and direct cause of giving 
a comfortable living to many. He died anno Domini 16 .. 

EDWARD ALLIN was born in the aforesaid parish, near De 
vonshire-house, where now is the sign of the Pie. He was bred 
a stage-player ; a calling which many have condemned, more have 
questioned, some few have excused, and far fewer conscientious 
people have commended. He was the Roscius of our age, so 
acting to the life that he made any part (especially a majestic 
one) to become him. He got a very great estate, and in his old 
age, following Christ ? s council (on what forcible motive belongs 
not to me to inquire), "he made friends of his unrighteous 
mammon," building therewith a fair college at Dulwich in Kent, 
for the relief of poor people. 

Some, I confess, count it built on a foundered foundation, 
seeing in a spiritual sense none is good and lawful money save 
what is honestly and industriously gotten. But perchance such 
w r ho condemn Master Allin herein, have as bad shillings in the 
bottom of their own bags, if search were made therein. Sure I 
am, no hospital is tied with better or stricter laws, that it may 
not sagg from the intention of the founder. The poor of his 
native parish, Saint Botolph Bishopsgate, have a privilege to 
be provided for therein before others. Thus he, who out- acted 
others in his life, out-did himself before his death, which 
happened anno Domini 1626. 

WILLIAM PLAT was born in this city (as his heir hath in 
formed me), son to Sir Hugh Plat, grand- son to Richard Plat, 
alderman of London. He was a fellow-commoner bred in Saint 
John s College in Cambridge, and by his will bequeathed 
thereunto lands to maintain fellows and scholars (fellows at 

* John Cheston, Geirge Carter. 
VOL. II. 2 C 



386 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

thirty, scholars at ten pounds per annum) so many as the estate 
would extend unto. 

But this general and doubtful settlement was liable to long 
and great suits betwixt the college and the heirs of the said 
William, until, anno 1656, the same were happily composed 
betwixt the college and John Plat, clerk, (heir to the foresaid 
William) when a settlement was made by mutual consent, of 
four scholars at ten, and two fellows at fifty pounds, per annum. 
Here I mention not thirty pounds yearly given by him to the 
poor of Hornsey and Highgate, with a lecture founded therein. 
This William Plat died anno 1637. 

ALEXANDER STRANGE, son to a doctor in law, was born in 
London,* bred in Peter-house in Cambridge, where he com 
menced bachelor of divinity, and afterwards for forty-six years 
was vicar of Layston,t and prebendary of Saint Paul s, where 
his prebenda-submersa, the corpse whereof was drowned in the 
sea, afforded him but a noble a year. 

Now, because Layston church stood alone in the fields, and 
inconveniently for such who were to repair thereunto, he built 
at Buntingford (a thorough road market, mostly in his parish) 
a neat and strong chapel, e stipe collatitia, from the bounty 
others gave, and he gathered. Wherefore, having laid the foun 
dation, before well furnished for the finishing thereof, he gave 
for his motto, " Beg hard, or beggard." 

None could tax him (with the Scribes and Pharisees) for "bind 
ing heavy burthens and grievous to be borne, and laying them on 
other men s shoulders, whilst he himself would not move them 
with one of his fingers."! First, because the burthens were not 
heavy, being light in the particulars, though weighty in the to 
tal sum. Secondly, he bound them on none, but professed him 
self bound unto them, if pleased to take them up for a public 
good. Thirdly, he put his, and that a bountiful, hand unto 
them, purchasing land out of his own purse to pay for the daily 
reparation thereof. He also promoted the building of a free 
school in the said place, to which some sisters, worshipfully 
born in the same town, wealthily and honourably married, were 
the foundresses ; yet so as it will still be thankful to contributors 
thereunto for better accommodation. 

This Master Strange, being no less prosperous than painful 
in compounding all differences among his neighbours, being a 
man of peace, went to eternal peace December 8, in the eightieth 
year of his age, 1650. 



TO THE READER. 

a 



Pauperis est numeral e," (they have but few who have but 
a number). It passeth my power to compute the Benefactors, 

* So was I informed by Iris careful executors F. 

f So read I in his epitaph in the chapel. F. J Matthew xxiii. 4. 



LORD MAYORS. 387 

natives of this city, whose names are entered in fair tables (the 
counterpart of the original, no doubt, kept in heaven) in their 
respective parishes; so that in this city it is as easy to find a 
steeple without a bell hanging in it, as a vestry without such a 
memorial fixed to it. Thither I refer the reader for his better 
satisfaction ; and proceed to the 

LORD MAYORS OF LONDON. 

1. John Rainwell, son of Rob. Rainwell, Fishmonger, 1426. 

2. Nicholas Wotton, son of Tho. Wotton, Draper, 1430. 

3. Robert Large, son of Tho. Large, Mercer, 1439. 

4. Stephen Foster, son of Robert Foster, Fishmonger 1454. 

5. Ralph Varney, son of Ralph Varney, Mercer, 1465. 

6. John Tate, son of John Tate, Mercer, 1473. 

7- Bartholom. James, son of Edw. James, Draper, 1479. 

8. John Percivall, son of Roger Percivall, Merchant-Taylor, 

1498. 

9. Richard Haddon, son of W. Haddon, Mercer, 1506. 

10. William Brown, son of John Brown, Mercer, 1507- 

11. Henry Kebble, son of Geo. Kebble, Grocer, 1510. 

12. William Brown, son of John Brown, Mercer, 1513. 

13. George Monox, son of [not named] Draper, 1514. 

14. Thomas Seymer. son of John Seymer, Mercer, 1526. 

15. William Holleis, son of Wm. Holleis, Baker, 1539. 

16. George Barn, son of Geo. Barn, Haberdasher, 1552. 
17- William Garrett, son of John Garrett, Grocer, 1555. 

18. William Chester, son of John Chester, Draper, 1560. 

19. Thomas Rowe, son of Rob. Rowe, Merchant-Taylor, 1568. 

20. William Allen, son of Wm. Allen, Mercer, 1571. 

21. James Hawes, son of Tho. Hawes, Cloth-worker, 1574. 

22. Nicholas W T oodrofe, son of David Woodrofe, Haberdasher, 

1579. 

23. John Branche, son of John Branche, Draper, 1580. 

24. Thomas Blanke, son of Tho. Blanke, Haberdasher, 1582. 

25. George Barne, son of Geo. Barne, Haberdasher, 1586. 

26. Martin Calthrop, son of Martin Calthrop, Draper, 1588. 

27. John Garrett, son of Wm. Garrett, Haberdasher, 1601. 

28. Thomas Low, son of Simon Low, Haberdasher, 1604. 

29. Henry Rowe, son of Tho. Rowe, Mercer, 1607. 

30. John Swinnerton, son of Tho. Swinnerton, Merchant-Taylor, 

1612. 

31. Sebastian Harvey, son of James Harvey, Ironmonger, 1618. 

32. William Cockain, son of W. Cockain, Skinner, 1619. 

33. Martin Lumley, son of James Lumley, Draper, 1623. 

34. John Goare, son of Gerrard Goare, Merchant-Taylor, 1624. 

35. Robert Ducy, son of Henry Ducy, Merchant-Taylor, 1630. 

36. Robert Titchborn, son of - - Titchborn, Skinner, 1656. 

2 c 2 



388 



WORTHIES OF LONDON. 



SHERIFFS 
OF LONDON AND MIDDLESEX. 



Anno HEN. II. 

1 Quatuor Vic. 

2 Gervasius, et Johan. 

3 Gervasius, et Johan. filius 

Radulphi. 
4 
5 Remiencus fili. Berigarii, 

et socii ejus. 
6 

7 Johan. filius Radulphi. 

8 Erisaldus Sutarius, et 
Vital. cFicus. 

9 Remiencus filius Boringa- 

rii, et Will, fil, Isab, 
for seven years. 

16 Johan. Bievinitte, et 
Bald. cl icus. 

17 Rad. Orificus, et Rad. 

Vinter. Andre. Buck- 
erol, Adlord. Crispus, 
David de Cornhill, et 
Rog. Blundus, for four 
years. 

21 Bricknerus de Haverhil, et 
Pet. fil. Walter. 

22 Idem. 

23 Will. fil. Isab. 

24 Waleran. Johan. filius Ni- 

gelli. 

25 Will. fil. Isab., et 
Arnulphus Buxell. 

26 Will, et Regin. le Viell. 

27 Idem. 

28 Idem. 

29 Will, et fil. Isab. for six 

years. 

RICHARD I. 

1 Henri, de Cornhill, et 
Rich. fil. Renner. 

2 Rich, filius Renner, ut su 

pra. 

3 Will, et Hen. fil. Renner. 

4 Nichol. Duke, et 
Pet. Neveley. 

5 Rog. Duke, et 



Anno 

Rich. fil. Alwin. 

6 Will. fil. Isabel, et 
Will. fil. Arnold. 

7 Rob. Besont, et 
Joh. de Josue. 

8 Gerard, de Anteloch, et 
Rob. Durant. 

9 Rog. Blunt, et 
Nichol. Ducket. 

10 Constant, filius Arnold, et 
Rob. le Beau. 

R. JOHAN. 

1 Arnold, filius Arnold, et 
Rich, filius Barthol. 

2 Rog. Dorset, et 
Jacob. Bartholomew. 

3 Walter, filius Alic. et 
Simon de Aldermanbury. 

4 Norman. Blundell, et 
Johan de Eely. 

5 Walt. Broune, et 
Will. Chamberlain. 

6 Tho. Haverel, et 
Hamon. Brond. 

7 Johan. Walgrave, et 
Rich de Winchester. 

8 Johan. Holihand, et 
Edm. filius Gerard. 

9 Rog. Winchester, et 
Edm. Hard Le. 

10 Petrus Duke, et 
Tho. Neal. 

11 Petr. le Josue, et 
Will. Blound. 

12 Adam Whiteley, et 
Step, le Grasse. 

13 Johan. filius Pet. et 
Joh. Garland. 

14 Randolp. Eyland, et 
Constan. Josue. 

15 Martin, filius Alic. et 
Petr, Bate. 

16 Solom. Basinge, et 
Hug. Basinge. 



SHERIFFS. 



389 



Anno 

17 Job. Travers, et 
And. Newland. 

HENRY III. 

1 Benedict. Seinturer, et 
Will. Bluntivers. 

2 Tho. Bockerel, et 
Rad. Holyland. 

3 Johan. Veile, et 
Johan. le Spicer. 

4 Rich. Wimbledon, et 
Johan. Veile. 

5 Rich. Renger, et 
Joban. Veile. 

6 Rich. Renger, et 
Tho. Lambart. 

7 Idem. 

8 Johan. Travars, et 
And. Bockerell. 

9 Idem. 

10 Rog. Duke, et 
Martin films Will. 

11 Idem. 

12 Steph. Bokerel, et 
Hen. Cocham. 

13 Idem. 

14 Will. Winchester, et 
Rob. filius Johan. 

15 Rich. Walter, et 
Johan. de Woborne. 

16 Micha. de S. Helen, et 
Walter, de Enfeild. 

17 Hen. de Edmonton, et 
Gerard. Bat. 

18 Sim. fil. Mar. et 
Rog. Blunt. 

19 Rad. Ashwy, et 
Johan. Norman. 

20 Gerard. Bat. et 
Rich, vel Rob. Hardle. 

21 Hen. Cobharn, et 
Jordan, de Coventry. 

22 Johan. Toloson, et 
Gervasius. 

23 Johan. Codras, et 
Job. Wilhall. 

24 Reymond Bongey, et 
Rad. Ashwv. 



Anno 

25 Johan. Gisors, et 
Mich. Tony. 

26 Tho. Duresme, et 
Johan. Voil. 

27 Johan. filius Job. et 
Rad. Ashwy. 

28 Hugo Blunt, et 
Adam. Basing. 

29 Rad. Foster, et Nic. Bat. 

30 Rob. de Cornhill, et 
Adam, de Bewley. 

31 Simon, filius Mar. et 
Laurent. Frowick. 

32 Johan. Voile, et Nic. Bat. 

33 Nich. fil. Josue, et 
Galf. Winchester. 

34 Rich. Hardell, et 
Job. Toloson. 

35 Humf. Bat, et 
Will. fil. Richardi. 

36 Laur. Frowick, et Nic. Bat. 

37 Will. Duresme, et 
Tho. Wimborne. 

38 Johan. Northampton, et 
Rich. Picard. 

39 Rad. Ashwy, et 
Rob. Limon. 

40 Steph. Doe, et 
Hen. Walmond. 

41 Mich. Bocherel, et 
Job. Minor. 

42 Rich. Otwell, et 
Will. Ashwy. 

43 Rob. Cornhill, et 
Job. Adrian. 

44 Idem. 

45 Adam. Brouning, et 
Hen. Coventry. 

46 Johan. Northampton, et 
Rich. Picard. 

47 Johan. Taylor, et 
Rich. Walbrook. 

48 Rob. de Mount-Piter, et 
Osbert de Suffolk. 

49 Greg. Rokesley, et 
Tho. de Detford. 

50 Edward Blunt, et 
Petr. Anger. 



390 



WORTHIES OF LONDON. 



Anno 

51 Jahan. Hind, et 
Johan. Walraven. 

52 Johan. Adrian, et 
Lucas de Baten-Court. 

53 Walter. Harvey, et 
Will. Duresme. 

54 Tho Baseing, et 
Rob. Cornhill. 

55 Walt. Potter, et 
Phil. Taylor. 

56 Greg. Rokesley, et 
Hen. W alleys. 

57 Rich. Paris, et 
Johan. de Wodeley. 

EDWARD T. 

1 Johan. Home, et 
Walt. Potter. 

2 Nico. Winchester, et 
Hen. Coventry. 

3 Lucas de Batencourt, et 
Hen. Frowick. 

4 Johan. Home, et 
Rad. Blunt. 

5 Rob. de Arer, et 
Rad. le Fewre. 

6 Johan. Adrian, et 
Walt. Langley. 

7 Rob. Baseing, et 
Will, le Meyre. 

8 Tho. Fox, et 
Rad. Delamore. 

9 Will. Farenden, et 
Nich. Winchester. 

30 Will, le Meyre, et 
Rich. Chigwell. 

11 Rad. Blunt, et 
Ankerin de Betavill. 

12 Johan. Goodcheap, et 
Martin, Box. 

13 Steph. Cornhill, et 
Rob. Rokesley. 

14 Walt. Blunt, et 
Johan. Wade. 

15 Tho. Cross, et 
Gualt. Hawteyne. 

16 W. Hereford, et 
Tho. Stanes. 



Anno 

17 W. Betaine, et 
Johan. de Canter. 

18 Fulke of St. Eclmond, et 
Salom. Langford. 

19 Tho. Romaine, et 
W. de Leyre. 

20 Rad. Blunt, et 
Hamond. Box. 

21 Hen. Bol velBolle, et 
Elias Russel. 

22 Rob. Rokesley, jun. et 
Mort. Aubery. 

23 Hen. Box, et 
Rich. Glocester. 

24 Johannis Dunstable, et 
Adam, de Halingbury. 

25 Tho. de Suffolk, et 
Adam de Fulham. 

26 Rich. Refham, et 
Tho. Sely. 

27 Johan. Armenter, et 
f Hen. Fingrith. 

28 Lucas de Havering, et 
Rich. Champnes. 

29 Rob. Callor, et 
Pet. de Bescant. 

30 Hugo Pourte, et 
Sim. Paris. 

31 W. Combmartin, et 
Johan. de Burford. 

32 Rog. Paris, et 
Johan. de Lincolne. 

33 Will. Cawson, et 
Regin. Thunderley. 

34 Galf. et Sim. Billet. 

EDWARD II. 

1 Nic. Pigot, et Nigel Drury. 

2 W. Baseing, et 
Jam. Butteler. 

3 Rog. le Palmer, et 
Jacobus de Saint Edmons. 

4 Sim. Cooper, et 
Petr. Blackney. 

5 Sim. Metwood, et 
Rich. Wilford. 

6 Johan. Lambin, et 
Will. Lutkin. 



SHERIFFS. 



391 



Anno 

7 Rob. Gurden, et 
Hugo Garton. 

8 Steph. Abingdon, et 
Hamond Chigwell. 

9 Hamond Goodcheap, et 
Willielm. Bodeleigh. 

10 Will. Caston, et 
Rad. Balancer. 

11 Johan. Prior, et 
Will. Furneux. 

12 Johan. Pointell, et 
Job. Dalling. 

13 Sim. de Abington, et 
Johan. Preston. 

14 Renauld. at Conduit, et 
Will. Prodham. 

15 Rich. Constantino, et 
Rich, de Hackney. 

16 Johan. Grantham, et 
Rich, de Ely. 

17 Adam, de Sarisbury, et 
Johan. de Oxford. 

18 Benet. de Fulham, et 
Johan. Cawson. 

19 Gilb. Mordon, et 
Joh. Causton. 

20 Rich. Rothing, et 
Rog. Chauntclere. 

EDWARD III. 

1 Hen. Darcy, et 
Johan. Haughton. 

2 Sim. Frances, et 
Hen. Combmartin. 

3 Rich. Lazar, et 
Will. Gisors. 

4 Rob. of Ely, et 
Tho. Whanvood. 

5 Johan. Mocking, et 
And. Auberey. 

6 Nico. Pike, et 
Johan. Husband.. 

7 Johan. Hamond, et 
Will. Hansard, 

8 Johan. Kingstone, et 
Walt. Turke. 

9 Walt. Mordon, et 
Rich. Upton. 

10 Johan. Clarke, et 



Anno 

Will. Curtes. 

11 Walt. Neale, et 
Nic. Crane. 

12 Will, de Pomfrett, et 
Hugo Marbler. 

13 Will. Thorney, et 
Rog. Frosham. 

14 Adam. Lucas, et 
Barth. Morris. 

15 Rich, de Barkeinge, et 
Johan. de Rokesley. 

16 Johan. Lou f kin, et 
Rich. Killingbery. 

17 Johan. Steward, et 
Joh. Aylesham. 

18 Geflred. Witchingham, et 
Tho. Leg. 

19 Edmund. Hemenhall, et 
Johan. de Gloucester. 

20 Joh. Croyden, et 
Will. Clopton. 

21 Adam. Brapson, et 
Rich. Fas, vel Bas. 

22 Hen. Picard, et 
Sim. Dolseby. 

23 Adam, de Bury, et 
Rad. de Lynn. 

24 Johan. Notte, et 
Will, de Worcester. 

25 Johan. Wroth, et 
Gilb. de Stenineshorpe. 

26 Johan. Peache, et 
Joh. Stotley. 

27 Will. Wold vel Wild, et 
Johan. Little. 

28 Will. Nottingham, et 
Rich. Smelt. 

29 Wai. vel Tho. Forster, et 
Tho. Brandon. 

30 Rich. Nottingham, et 
Tho. Dolsell. 

31 Stephen. Candish, et 
Barth. Frostlinge. 

32 Johan. Barnes, et 
Johan. Buris. 

33 Sim. de Bennington, et 
Johan. de Chichester. 

34 Johan. Dennis, et 
Walt. Berny. 



392 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

Anuo Anno 

35 Will. Holbech, et 43 Job. Piell, et 
Jacob. Tame. Hugo Holdich. 

36 Joban. de S. Alban. et 44 Will. Walworth, et 
Jacob. Andrew. Rob. Gayton. 

37 Rich, de Croyen, et 45 Adam. Staple, et 
Johan. Hiltoft. Rob. Hatfeiled. 

38 Johan. de Metford, et 46 Johan. Philpot, et 
Simon, de Mordon. Nich. Brembar. 

39 Johan. Bukylsworth, et 47 Johan. Aubeiy, et 
Johan. vel Tho. Ireland. Johan. Fished. 

40 Johan. Ward, et 48 Rich. Lyons, et 
Tho. de Lee. Will. Woodhouse. 

41 Johan. Turnegold, et 49 Johan. Hadley, et 
Will. Dickman. Will. Newport. 

42 Rob. Girdeler, et 50 Johan. Northampton, et 
Adam Wimondham. Rob. Land. 

KING JOHN. 

5. WALTER BROWN. This is he who, with Rosia his wife, 
founded the hospital of Saint Mary without Bishopsgate, com 
monly called Saint Mary Spittle. 

HENRY THE THIRD. 

31. SIMON FITZ-MARY. He founded the hospital of Mary, 
called Bethlehem* (corruptly Bedlam) without Bishopsgate. 

SHERIFFS 
OF LONDON AND MIDDLESEX. 

RICHARD II. 

Anno Name and Arms. 

1 Andr. Pikeman. 
Nich. de Twiford. 

Arg. two bars, and on a canton S. a buckle of the first. 

2 Johan. Bosham. 
Tho. Cornwallis. 

3 Johan. Helesdon. 
Will. Barret. 

4 Walt. Doget. 
Will. Knightcott. 

5 Johan. Hende. 

Arg. a chevron Az. three escalop shells of the feild ; on a 

chief of the second a lion passant of the first. 
Johan. Rote. 

6 Adam. Bam. 

Erm. on a chief indented S. an annulet between two 
trefoils Arg, 

* Since removed into St. George s-fields, in the county of Surrey ED. 



SHERIFFS. 393 

Anno Name and Arms. 

Johan. Sely. 

7 Johan. More. 

Arg. a fess dancette G. and S. between three mullets of 

six points pierced of the third. 
Simon. Winchcombe. 

8 Nich. Exon. 

G. a cross between twelve croslets fitched O. 
Johan. Fresh. 

Vert, a fess engrailed O. ; in chief an annulet S. 

9 Johan. Churchman. 
Johan. Organ. 

10 Will. Moore. 
Will. Stanndon. 

S. on a chevron between three lions heads erased Arg. 
seven cloves proper. 

11 Hugo. Tastolfe. 
Will. Venour. 

G. on a fess O. five escalops, three and two, S. 

12 Tho. Austen. 
Adam. Carleille. 

13 Johan. Lovey. 
Johan. Walcott. 

Arg. on a fess S. three escalops O. 

14 Tho. Vynant. 
Johan. Francis. 

Erm. on canton S. a harp Arg. 

15 Johan. Chadworth. 

Arg. on a bend S. three trefoils of the first. 
Hen. Vauner. 

16 Gilb. Muchfeld. 
Tho. Newton. 

17 Urogo. Barentin. 

S. three eaglets Arg. ; in the midst an annulet O. 
Rich. Whittington. 

G. a fess compony O. and Az. ; in the dexter canton an 
annulet. 

18 Will. Brampton. 
Tho. Knoll. 

Az. seme of croslets and a cross recercilte O. 

19 Will. Shiringham. 
Roger. Ellis. 

20 Tho. Wilford. 
Will. Panker. 

21 Johan. Woodcoke. 

O. on a bend G. three crosses bottony fitched at foot of 

the first. 
Will. Askham. 

G. a fess O, between three dolphins naiant Arg. 

22 Johan. Warner. 



394 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

Anno Name and Arms. 

Johan. Wade. 

HENRY IV. 

1 Will. Walderne. 

Arg. a bend between three griffins heads erased S. 
Will, Hide. 

2 Will. Gnote. 
Johan. Wakely. 

3 Rob. Chichley. 

O. a chevron engrailed between three cinquefoils G. 

Rich. Merlaw. 

Quarterly G. and S. an orle of martlets of the second. 

4 Tho. Polle. 
Tho. Fawkoner. 

Paly of six Arg- and S. ; on a bend Vert three trefoils 
of the first. 

5 Tho. Polle. 
Tho. Fawkoner. 

Arms, ut prius. 

6 Hen. Barton. 

Erm. a saltire S. voided of the field. 
Will. Crowmer. 

Arg. a chevron engrailed between three choughs 

proper. 

7 Nich. Wotton. 

Arg. a saltire engrailed S. 
Galf. Brooke. 

8 Hen. Halton. 
Hen. Pounfrayt. 

9 Will. Norton. 
Tho. Dukes. 

10 Johan. Law. 
Will, Chichley. 

Arms, as before. 

11 Johan. Penn. 
Tho. Pike. 

12 Johan. Raynwell. 

Per pale indented Arg. and S. a chevron G. 
Walt. Cotton. 

HENRY V. 

1 Johan. Sutton. 
Johan. Michell. 

2 Johan. Michell. 

S. a chevron between three escalops O. 
Tho. Aleyn. 

3 Will. Cambrigg. 

Az. a cross patonce between four swans Arg. 
Adam. Everard. 



SHERIFFS. 395 

Ami Name and Arms. 

4 Johan. Coventre. 

Arg. on a chevron S. between three columbines proper 

a bezant. 
Rob. Widington. 

5 Hen. Rede. 
Johan. Gedney. 

Arg. on a fess Az. three eaglets displayed O. between as 
many leopards heads G. 

6 Johan. Par vies. 

O. a fess Vert, over all a saltire G. 
Rad. Barton. 

7 Johan. Botiller. 
Rob. Whitingham. 

8 Johan. Welles. 

Lozengy O. and Erm. a lion rampant G. 
Johan. Botiller. 

9 Will. Weston. 
Rich Gosselin. 

HENRY VI. 

1 Will. Eastfield. 

S. a chevron between three boys heads Arg. crined O 
Rob. Tatersall. 

2 Tho. Wadeford. 
Nich. James. 

3 Johan. Bithwater. 
Sim. Seaman. 

4 Will. Milreth. 
Johan. Brockle. 

Checkee O. and Vert, a chief Arg. 

5 Rob. Arnold. 
Johan. Higham. 

6 Rob. Otteley. 

Arg. three lions headerased within a border engrailed S. 
Hen. Frowicke. 

7 Johan. Abbot. 
Tho. Duffhous. 

8 Will.Rus. 
Rad. Holland. 

9 Rob. Large. 

Arg. a bend Az. between three mullets G. 
Walt. Chichley. 

^ O. a chevron betwixt three cinquefoils G. 
10 Steph. Brown. 

Arg. two chevrons S. ; on a canton Erm. an annulet of the 

second. 
Johan. Hatherley. 



396 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

Anno Name and Arms. 

11 Johan. Padesley. 

Arg. three flowers-de-luce Az. charged on the middle with 

annulets O. 
Johan. Oylney. 

G. besanty, two flanches S. ; on each a lion rampant gar- 
dan t Arg. 

12 Tho. Chalton. 

Az. a lion rampant regardant Arg. crowned O. 
Johan. Linge. 

13 Tho. Brunewell. 
Simon Eyre. 

G. a porcupine saliant Arg. quilted and chained about the 
neck O. 

14 Rob. Clopton. 

G. a fess Erm. between six mascles O. 
Tho. Chatworth. 

Erm. three pyles S. ; on a canton O. a flower-de-luce Az. 

15 Will. Gregory. 

Per pale O. and Az. two lions rampant indorsed and re 
gardant, counterchanged. 
Tho. Marsted. 

16 Will. Chapman. 
Will. Halys. 

17 Hugo. Dike. 

Nich. Yoo, sive Goo. 

18 Rob. Markhall. 
Phil. Malpas. 

19 Johan. Button. 
Will. Wettenhall. 

20 Will, Combes. 
Rich. Rich. 

21 Tho. Beaumond. 
Rich. Norden. 

22 Johan. Norman. * 

O. three bars G. ; on a chief Arg. as many flower-de-luces 

S. 
Nich. Wyford. 

23 Steph. Foster. 

S. a chevron engrailed Erm. between three pheons Arg. 
Hugo. Wich. 

Arg. on a chevron G. five plates between three quatrefoils 
slipt Vert. 

24 Johan. Darby. 
Galf. Felding. 

Arg. on a fess Az. three lozenges O. 

25 Rob. Home. 



SHERIFFS. 397 

Anno Name and Arms. 

Galf. Sullen. 

Arg. a chevron G. between three bulls* heads couped S. 
armed O. 

26 Will. Abram. 
Tho. Scot. 

Arg. a chevron between three gridirons S. 

27 Will. Catlowe. 
Will. Marrowe. 

Az, a fess engrailed O. between three maidenheads Arg. 
crined of the second. 

28 Tho. Caning. 
Will. Hulyn. 

Arg. a chevron Az. within a border engrailed S. 

29 Will. Dere. 
Johan. Middleton. 

30 Math. Philip. 

S. seme of flowers-de-luce O. a lion rampant Ermine, 

crowned O. 
Chri. Marter. 

31 Rich. Lee. 

Az. on a fess between two cotises O. three leopards heads G. 
Rich. Allyn. 

Az. a pale engrailed Erm. 

32 Johan. Walden. 
Tho. Cooke. 

O. a chevron compony G. and Az. between three cinque- 
foils of the third. 

33 Will. Tayllour. 
Johan. Felde. 

34 Johan. Young. 

Lozengy O. and Arg.; on a bend Az. two ebeckes heads 

erased of the first. 
Tho. Oldgrave. 

Az. a chevron engrailed Erm. between three owls O. 

35 Johan. Styward. 
Rad. Varny. 

Az. on a cross Arg. five mullets O. 

36 Tho. Reyner. 
Will. Edward. 

Arg. a fess between six martlets S. 

37 Rad. Jocelin. 

Az. a wreath Arg. and S. adorned with four horse-bells O. 
Rich. Nedeham. 

38 Johan. Stocker. 
Johan. Plommer. 

EDW. IV. 

1 Johan. Lambard. 



398 WORTHIES OF LOXDOX. 

Anno Name and Arms. 

Rich. Fleming. 

2 Geor. Ireland. 
Johan. Lock. 

3 Will. Hampton. 

G. a fess cheeky O. and Az. within a border Arg. 
Barth. James. 

Az. on a chevron between three lions passant gardant O. 
as many escalops S. . 

4 Rob. Basset. 
Tho. Muschamp. 

5 Johan, Tate. 

Per fess O. and G. a pale counterchanged, between 

three Cornish choughs. 
Johan. Stone. 

6 Hen. Wever, mil. 
Will. Constantin. 

7 Johan. Brown. 

Az. a chevron between three escalops O. within a border 

engrailed. 
Johan. Stockton. 

G. a chevron vairy Arg. and S. between three mullets Arg. 

8 Hum. Hay ford. 

Arg. a chevron S. between three roebucks tripping G. 
Tho. Stalbroock. 

9 Will. Heriot. 

Per pale Ermine and Erminois three crescents counter- 
changed. 
Simon. Smith. 

10 Rob. Drope. 

Arg. gutte de poix ; on a chief G. a lion passant 

gardant O. 
Rich. Gardiner. 

. Per fess Arg. and S. a pale counterchanged between three 
griffins heads erased of the field. 

11 Johan. Crosbey. 
Johan. Warde. 

12 Johan. Shelley. 
Johan. Aleyn. 

13 Tho. Bledlowe. 
Johan. Brown. 

14 Will. Stocker. 
Rob. Billesdon. 

Az. a bend cotised O.; in the sinister chief an eagle s head 
erased of the second. 

15 Tho. Hill. 

S. a chevron Erin, between three lions passant guar- 
darat. 



SHERIFFS. 399 

Anno Name and Arms. 

Edw. Shaw. 

Arg. a chevron between three lozenges Erm. within 
a border G. 

16 Rob. Colwich. 
Hugo. Brice. 

Arg. fretty G. a plain cross of the first, within a border 
Az. verdoy of cinquefoils O. 

17 Rich. Rawson. 
Will. Home. 

18 Hen. Collet. 

S. on a chevron between three hinds tripping Arg. as 

many annulets of the first. 
Johan. Stocker. 

19 Rob. Harding. 
Rob. Byfeld. 

20 Tho. Ham, ^ 
Johan. Ward. 

21 Will. Bacon. 
Tho. Daniell. 

22 Rob. Tate. 

Arms, as before. 
Rich. Chawry. 

Arg. on a chevron S. between three birds Az. as many 
annulets of the first. 

RICHARD III. 

1 Johan. Mathew. 

Gyronny of six S. and G v a lion rampant O. within a 

border Az. charged with crosses patee O. 
Will. White. 

S. on a chevron between three ewers Arg. as many 
martlets G. 

2 Tho. Northland. 
Mill. Marten. 

O. two bars G. on the first an escutcheon Erm. 

3 Rad. Astry. 

Barry wavy Arg. and Az. on a chief G. three bezants. 
Tho. Breteyn. 

HENRY VII. 

1 Johan. Tate. 

Arms, as before. 
Johan. Swan, 

2 Johan. Percival. 

Per chevron G. and Az. three greyhounds heads erased 

Arg. 
Hugo. Clopton. 

Paly of four O. and Az. a lion rampant counterchanged. 



400 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

Anno Name and Arms. 

3 Tho. Frukell. 
Will. Remington. 

Gyronny of eight Erm. and Az. a dolphin naiant O. 

4 Rad, Tilney. 

Arg. a chevron between three griffins heads erased G. 
Will. Isacke. 

5 Will. Capell. 

G. a lion rampant betwixt three crosses botony fitchy O. 
Johan. Brooke. 

6 Hen. Coote. 
Hugo. Pemberton. 

7 Tho. Wood. 
Will. Brone. 

Per pale indented O. and Arg. a chevron between three 
escalop-shells G. 

8 Will. Welbeck. 
Will. Purches. 

Arg. a lion rampant Az., whereon a fess S. charged with 
three besants. 

9 Rob. Fabian. 
Johan. Winger. 

Arg. on a chevron between three mascles S. as many 
besants. 

10 Nich. Alwyn. 

Arg. a fess nubilee Az. between two lions passant S. 
Johan. Warner. 

11 Tho. Knesworth. 

Erm. a chevron wavy G. between three greyhounds 

passant. 
Hen. Somer. 

12 Johan. Shawe. 

Arms, as before. 
Rich. Haddon. 

O. a man s leg couped at the thigh Az. 

13 Barth. Rede. 

Per pale G. and S. a croslet botony fitched at the base 

between four flowers-de-luce O. 
Tho. Windew. 

14 Tho. Burdbury. 

S. a chevron Erm. between three round buckles Arg. the 

tongues pendant. 
Steph. Jenings. 

Arg. a chevron G. betwixt three plumets S. 

15 Jac. Wilford. 
Rich. Brond. 

16 Johan. Hawes. 
Will. Stede. 

17 Laur. Aylemer, mil. 



SHERIFFS. 401 

Anno Name and Arms. 

Hen. Hedde. 

18 Hen, Kebill. 

Arg. a chevron engrailed G. ; on a chief Az. three 

mullets O. 
Nich. Nynis. 

19 Chri. Hawes. 
Tho. Grannger. 

20 Rog. Acheley. 

G. on a fess engrailed between three griffins heads 

erased O. as many crosses pattee fitched S. 
Will. Brown. 
Arms, as before. 

21 Rich. Shore. 
Rog. Grove. 

22 Will. Coppinger. 

Bendy of six, Arg. and G. on a fess Vert three plats 

withim a border of the second. 
Will. Fitz-Will. 

23 Will. Botiler. 

Arg. on a fess compone G. and Az. betwixt six croslets 

of the third three annulets O. 
Johan Kirkby. 

24 Tho. Exmewe. 

Arg. a chevron cheeky G. and Arg. between three escalop 
shells S. ; within a border of the second ennurny of 
leopards heads, and entoir of annulets O. 

HENRY VIII. 

1 George Monox. 

Arg. on a chevron S. between three holly-leaves proper 
as many besants ; on a chief G. a bird between two 
anchors O. 
Johan. Doget. 

2 Johan. Wilborne. 
Johan. Rest. 

3 Nich. Shelton. 
Tho. Mirfin. 

4 Rob. Fenrother. 
Rob. Aldernes. 

5 Johan. Brugges. 

Arg. on a cross S. a leopard s head O. 
Rog. Basford. 

S. three dancing bears O. 

6 Jac. Yarford. 
Johan. Mundy. 

7 Hen. Warly. 
Rob. Baily. 

VOL. II. 2 D 



402 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

Anno Name anJ Arm . 

8 Tho. Seymor. ^ 

S. a fess imbattled with three ogresses betwixt as many 

wings Arg. 
Johan. Thirston. 

9 Tho. Baldry. 
Rad. Simonds. 

10 Johan. Aleyn. 
Jacob. Spens. 

11 Johan. Wilkenson. 
Nich. Peitrich, 

Checke Arg. and S. on a bend G. three escalops O. 

12 Johan. Kime. 

G. a chevron betwixt nine cross croslets O. 
Johan. Skevington. 

Arg. three bulls heads erased S. 

13 Johan. Bretton. 
Tho. Pargiton. 

14 Johan. Rudston. 
Johan. Champnes. 

Per pale Arg. and S. a lion rampant within a border en 
grailed counterchanged. 

15 Mich. English. 

S. three lions passant Arg. 
Johan. Junis. 

16 Rad. Dodmer. 
Will. Roche. 

17 Johan. Counton. 
Chii. Askew. 

18 Steph. Peacocke. 
Nich. Lambard. 

19 Johan. Hardy. 
Will. Howies. 

20 Rad. Warren. 
Johan. Long. 

21 Mich. Dormer. 

Az. ten billets, four, three, two, and one, O.; in a chief of 

the second a lion issuant S. armed and langued G. 
Walt. Champion. 

22 Will. Dauntsey. 
Rich. Cophin. 

23 Rich. Gresham. 
Edw. Altam. 

24 Rich. Reynolds. 
Johan. Prise. 

25 Will. Forman. 
Tho. Kitson, mil. 

26 Nich. Lawson. 



SHERIFFS. 403 

Anno Name and Arms. 

Will. Denham. 

27 Hum. Munmoth. 
Johan. Cotes. 

28 Rob. Paget. 
Will. Bowyer. 

29 Johan. Greshaiu. 
Tho. Lewyn. 

30 Will. Wilkinson. 
Nich. Gibson. 

Az. three storks rising proper. 

31 Johan. Fairy. 
Tho. Huntlowe. 

32 Mart. Bowes. 
Will. Louton. 

33 Roland. Hill, mil. 
Hen. Suckley. 

34 Hen. Hoberthorne. 
Hn. Amcotts. 

)A rg ;n a 1 Castle betwixt ^ree cups covered Az. 
oc> Kicn. lolus. 

Johan. Dobes. 

36 Johan. Wilford. 
And. Judde. 

37 Georg. Barnes. 
Had. Aleyn. 

38 Rich. Jerveys. 
Tho. Curtys. 

EDWARD VI. 

1 Rob. Chertesev. 
Tho. White. 

2 Will. Lock, 
Johan. Ayliffe. 

3 Johan. Yorke. 
Rich. Turke. 

4 Agust. Hinde. 
Johan. Lyon. 

5 Johan. Lambert. 
Johan. Cooper. 

6 Johan. Maynard. 



REX. PHIL. ET. MA. REGINA 

1 Tho. Offley. 

Ar tw?x n t fou c ;r s AZ K f r m6 e flurt - a 1! i*t o. 

Will. Hete? mi Ch Ugh 

2 D 2 



404 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 

Anno Name and Arms. 

2 David. Woodroffe. 
Will. Chester. 

3 Tho. Leigh. 
Johan. Macham. 

4 Will. Harpur. 
Johan. White. 

5 Rich. Mallary. 
Jaco. Altham. 

6 Johan. Hales. 
Rich. Champion. 

REG. ELIZAB. 

1 Tho. Lodge. 
Rog. Martin. 

2 Chri. Diaper. 
Tho. Roo. 

3 Alex. Avenon. 
Hum. Baskervill. 

Arg. a chevron G. betwixt three hearts proper. 

4 Will. Allen. 

Rich. Chamberlain. 

5 Edw. Banckes. 
Rowland. Haward. 

6 Edw. Jackman. 
Lion. Ducket. 

7 Johan. Rivers. 

Az. two bars dancette O. ; in chief three bezants. 
Jacob. Hawys. 

8 Amb. Nicolas. 
Johan. Langley. 

9 Thomas Ramsey. 

S. a chevron Erm. betwixt three rams heads crazed Arg. 
Will. Bond. 

10 Johan. Cliffe. 
Jacob. Bacon. 

11 Hen. Becher. 
Will. Dane. 

12 Fran. Barnham. 
Will. Boxe. 

13 Johan. Milles. 
Johan. Braunch. 

14 Rich. Pipe. 

Az. crusuly, two pipes O. 
Nich. Woodroffe. 

15 Jacob. Harvey. 
Tho. Pullyson. 

16 Tho. Blancke. 
Anth. Qamage. 



SHERIFFS. 405 

Anno Name and Arms. 

17 Edw. Osborn. 
Wolstans. Dixie. 

18 Will. Kimpton. 
Georg. Barne. 

19 Nich. Backhouse. 
Fran. Bowyer. 

O. a bend vairy betwixt two cotises G. 

20 Georg. Bonde, 
Tho. Starkey. 

21 Mart. Calthorpe. 

Cheeky O. and Az. a fess Erra. 
Johan. Hart. 

22 Rod. Woodcock. 
Johan. Allott. 

23 Rich. Martin. 
Will. Webbe. 

24 Will. Rowe. 

Arg. on a chevron Az. between three trefoils parted per 

pale G. and Vert, as many bezants. 
Cutb. Buckell. 

25 Will. Masham. 
Johan. Spencer. 

26 Steph. Slany. 
Hen. Willingsley. 

27 Anth. Ratliffe. 
Hen. Prannell. 

28 Rob. House. 
Will. Elkin. 

29 Johan. Catcher. 
Tho. Skynner. 

30 Hugo. Offeley. 

Arg. on a cross Az. formee floury a lion passant O. be 
tween four Cornish choughs proper. 
Rich. Saltenstall. 

31 Rich. Gourney. 
Steph. Soame. 

G. a chevron betwixt three mallets O. 

32 Nich. Mouseley. 

S. a chevron betwixt two mallets Arg. 
Rich. Brooke. 

33 Will. Rider. 

Az. three crescents O. 
Benedic. Barnham. 

34 Johan. Gerrard. 
Rob. Taylor. 

35 Pavel. Banning. 
Pet. Haughton. 



406 WORTHIES OF LONDON, 

Anno Name and Arms. 

36 Rob. Lee. 
Tho. Benett, 

37 Tho. Lowe. 
Leon. Holliday. 

38 Johan. Watts. 
Ricard. Goddard. 

39 Hen. Rowe. 
Johan. Moore. 

40 Edw. Holmenden. 
Rob. Hampson. 

41 Rog. Clarke. 
Hum. Welde. 

42 Tho. Cambell. 
Will. Craven. 

Arg. a fess betwixt six cross croslets fitchy G. 

43 Hen. Anderson. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three cross croslets S. 
Will. Glover. 

JACOB. REX. 

1 Jam. Pemberton. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three buckets S. 
Johan. Swynnerton. 

Arg. a cross formee flurt S. 

2 Will. Rumney. 
Tho. Middleton. 

3 Tho. Hayes, mil. 

Erm. three leopards heads crazed G. 
Oliver. Stile, arm. 

4 Clem. Scudamore. 

G. three stirrups leathered and buckled O. 
Johan. Jolles, mil. 

5 Will. Walthall. 
Johan. Leman. 

Az. a fess betwixt three dolphins Arg. 

6 Galf. Elwis. 
Nich, Stile. 

7 Georg. Booles. 

Az.three cups Arg. holding as many boars heads erected O. 
Rich. Farrington. 

8 Rich. Pyott. 
Fran. Jones. 

9 Edw. Barkham. 

Arg. three pallets G. ; over all a chevron. 
Georg. Smithes. 
10 Edw. Rotheram. 
Alex. Prescot. 



SHERIFFS. 



407 



Auno Name and Arms. 

11 Tho. Bennett. 
Hen. Jay. 

12 Pet. Proby. 
Mart. Lumley. 

13 Will. Gore. } 

Johan Gore a betwixt three croslets ntcny U. 

14 Allanus Cotton. 
Cut. Harbert. 

15 Will. Holeday. 
Rob. Johnson. 

16 Rich. Herve. 
Hugo. Hamersley. 

17 Rich. Deane. 
Jacob. Cam bell. 

18 Edrus. Allen. 
Rob. Ducy. 

O. two lions passant G. 

19 Geor. Whitmore, 

Vert, fretty O. 
Nich. Ranton. 

20 Johan. Hodges. 
Hum. Handford, il. 

21 Tho. Moulson. 
Rad. Freeman. 

Az. three lozenges Arg. 

22 Roland. Heylinge. 
Rob. Parkhurst. 

4 > 

CAR. REG. 

1 Jahan. Poole. 
Chri. Clitherowe. 

2 Edrus. Bromfeild. 
Rich. Fenn. 

3 Maur. Abbot, mil. 
Hen. Gar way. 

Arg. a pile surmounted by a fess, between four leopards 
heads G. 

4 Rowland Backhouse. 
Will. Acton, mil, and bar. 

5 Edmund Wright. 
Humph. Smith. 

6 Arthur Abdey. 

O. two chevrons betwixt three cinquefoils S. 
Rob. Cambell. 

7 Sam. Cranmer. 
Hen. Prat. 

Arg. on a chevron S. between three pellets, each charged 1 
with a martlet of the field, as many mascles O. 

8 Hugo Perry. 



408 WORTHIES OF LONDON. 


Anno Name and Arms. 

Hen. Andrews. 
9 Gilb. Harrison. 
Rich. Gurney. 

Paly counter-paly of six pieces per fess O. and Az. 

10 John Highlord. 

S. a bend flory Arg. 
Joh. Cordell. 

11 Tho. Soame. 
Joh. Gaire. 

12 Will. Abell. 
Jac. Gerrard. 

13 Tho. Atkin. 
Edw. Rudge. 

14 Isaac Pennington. 
Joh. Woolaston, 

S. three mullets pierced Arg. 

15 Tho. Adams. 

Erm. three cats Az. 
Johan. Warner. 

O. a chevron betwixt three boars heads erased S. 

16 Johan. Towse. 
Abram. Reynardson. 

Arg. two chevrons engrailed and a canton G. whereon a 
a mascle of the field. 

17 Georg. Garret^ mil. 
Georg. Clarke. 

Arg. on a bend G. between three ogresses as many swans 
proper. 

18 Johan. Langham. 

Arg. three bears heads erased S. muzzled O. 
Tho. Andrews. 

Arg. on a chevron engrailed betwixt three trefoils Vert as 
many mullets O. 

19 Johan. Fouke. 

Vert,, a flower de-luce Arg. 
Jacob. Bunce. 

20 Will. Gibbs. 
Rich Chambers. 

21 Johan. Kendrick. 
Tho. Foot. 

Arg. a chevron, and in the dexter-point a trefoil S. 

22 Tho. Cullum. 
Simon, Edmunds. 

The reader (whom I presume no less charitable than judi 
cious) will not be offended with the many naked blanks, or 
armless spaces, annexed to these sheriffs, He that thinks the 
sheriffs of London as cognizable persons (especially so long 
since) as those of other counties, may with equal truth maintain 



SHERIFFS. 409 

the springs of rivers as easily discernible as their channels. 
For the sheriffs of counties were men of known and grown 
estates, equally eminent for the roots whence they sprang, as 
for the branches springing from them ; whereas many sheriffs 
of London (like those plants which the gardeners term annual, 
lasting but a year) appear only eminent during their shrievalty, 
and afterwards no motion or mention of them, especially of 
such as died before their mayoralty; the true reason why we 
could attain so few arms with any assurance. 

HENRY VI, 

18. PHILIPPUS MALPAS. He gave by his testament 125 
to relief of poor prisoners ; and every year, for five years, 
400 shirts and smocks, 40 pair of sheets, 150 gowns of frieze 
to the poor. To 500 poor people in London, every one 
6*. Sd. ; to poor maids marriages, 100 marks; to highways, 
100 marks; 20 marksj the year to a graduate to preach; 20 
unto preachers at the Spittle on the three Easter holidays, &c.* 

20. RICHARD RICH. He was a mercer, and founded alms- 
houses at Hodsden in Hertfordshire,t which no doubt were by 
him competently endowed ; though now the alms-houses are as 
poor as the alms-folk, the one needing repairing, as much as 
the other relieving. 

EDWARD IV. 

17. RICHARD RAWSON. He gave by testament large legacies 
to the prisoners, hospitals, and lazar-houses. To other poor, to 
highways, to the water-conduits, besides to poor maids mar 
riages, 340 ; and his executors to build a large house in 
the churchyard of St. Mary s Spittle, wherein the mayor and 
his brethren do use to sit, and hear the sermons in Easter 
holidays.:}: 

20. THOMAS ILAM. He newly builded the great conduit in 
the Cheap, of his own charges, to the great convenience of the 
city. 

HENRY VII. 

HENRY KEBLE. He gave to highways 200, || to poor 
maids marriages 100 marks, &c.; to seven alms-men in London 
6d. the week for ever. He was, when living, a great benefactor 
to the ^ building of Aldermary church, and by his testament 
gave 1000 towards the finishing thereof. How barbarously 
he was afterwards requited, and his body cast out of the grave, 
we have formerly largely bemoaned, and with just indig 
nation. TI 

* Stow s Survey of London, p. 88. f Iilem, p. 89. J Idem", ibidem. 

Idem, ibidem. || Idem, ibidem. 

! First Book, in the Chapter of CHURCHES, see vol. i. p. 31. 



410 WORTHIES OF LOAD ON. 

HEXRY VIII. 

1. GEORGE MONOX. He re-edified the decayed parish- 
church of Waltamstow, or Walthamstow, in Essex ; he founded 
there a free-school, and alms-houses for thirteen alms-people ; 
he made also a causeway of timber over the marshes from Wal 
thamstow to Lock-bridge.* 

THE FAREWELL. 

And now, being to take my farewell of this great city, I can 
not forget the verse, which I find, amongst others, in Master 
Camden s commendation thereof: 

Urbs pietate potens, numcroso vive uperba. 
" Potent in piety, in her people proud." 

But see the Romish charity, who confine all piety to Popery. 
The Index Expurgatorius, printed at Madrid by Lewes Sanchez 
1612, commandeth the fore-part of the verse, concerning their 
piety, to be expunged ; letting the latter moiety, of their pride, 
to remain. 

May I in this particular be the humble remembrancer of the 
city (without the least intrenching on his place who worthily 
dischargeth that office) t to cross and confute that peevish and 
partial Index. Let it be their endeavours to delete out of their 
hearts all high conceits of their populousness, and effectually 
to express grace and goodness in their conversations. 

Nor let the city of London ever forget " quantillum interfuit 
inter maximam civitatem et nullam," (how little distance there 
lately was betwixt the greatest city and none at all), if gates 
and bars (as it is generally received) be the essential difference 
of a city. But God, who can produce light out of darkness, 
can make the plucking down of the gates, to be the setting up 
of the city. Wherefore though the eleventh day of March be 
generally beheld as the first day of Spring, London may date 
her Spring from the eleventh day of February 1659, when she 
effectually felt the vernal heat after a long winter of woe and 
misery. 

I heartily wish this honourable city whatever may conduce 
to the continuance and increase of the happiness thereof. Es 
pecially that the river of Thames, the life of London (as which 
easeth, adometh, enricheth, feedeth, and fortifioth it), may have 
its channel constantly continued. The Miller s riddle, 

" If I have water I will drink wine ; 
But if I have no water, I must drink water, 1 

is appliable to this city : so long as Thames water continues, 
Londoners may wine it ; but should it fail, they must drink 

* Stow s Survey of London, p. 90. 

f This is a very ancient and respectable office in the City of London. ED. 



WESTMINSTER. 411 

water indeed, and some perchance brackish too, as made of their 
tears. 

I will not pry too nearly and narrowly into the fancy of our 
poet, speaking of the ruins of old Rome : 

" Ne ought, save Tiber hasting to his fall, 
O world s inconstancy ! remains of all : 
That which is firm doth flit and fall away, 
And that is flitting doth abide and stay.* 

And yet, by his leave, greater rivers than Tiber have, in pro 
cess of time, had their streams, by casualties or neglect, partly 
drained, wholly dried, or otherwise diverted. My humble re 
quest therefore to the officers of the city is, effectually to own 
their concernment in the river of Thames, in clearing and cleans 
ing it from shoals, sands, and other obstructing encroachments,t 
that they may leave it as well to posterity, as they found it from 
their fathers. 



WESTMINSTER. 

WESTMINSTER is the greatest city in England next to Lon 
don, not only in position, but by the dimensions thereof. For 
let it be taken (as truly it ought) extensively with the liberty of 
Lancaster from Temple-bar, and it filleth as much ground (not 
to say containeth more reasonable souls) than any city in the 
land. But as a proper man seemeth a dwarf, when placed next 
to a giant ; such the infelicity of Westminster, whose due great 
ness, devoured by the vicinity of London, is insensible in the 
eyes of beholders. 

It was anciently called Thorney, and afterwards Westminster, 
for distinction from St. Paul s, called in ancient times East- 
minster.J 

THE BUILDINGS. 

The Abbey church is beheld as a rare structure, with so small 
and slender pillars (greatest legs argue not the strongest man) to 
support so weighty a fabric, built by king Henry the Third, and 
afterwards much enlarged and beautified by the abbots thereof. 

Adjoining to it is the chapel of king Henry the Seventh, which 
Leland calls "the miracle of the world." Indeed, let the 

1 Bella, in his Ruins of Rome, translated by Spenser. 

f The Lord Mayor of London is, by his office, Conservator of the Thames : 
and a committee of aldermen and other members of the Court of Common Coun 
cil, are annually appointed to superintend the improvement of the navigation, and 
to prevent encroachments. ED. 

t Bale, de Scriptorib is Britannicis, Cent ii. p. 173, in Vita Gilbert! Westmo- 
nasteriensis. 



412 WORTHIES OF WESTMINSTER. 

Italians deride our English, and condemn them for Gothic 
buildings ; this they must admire, and may here take notes of 
architecture (if their pride would permit them) to perfect theirs 
accordingly. 

In this chapel the founder thereof, with his queen, lieth in 
terred, under a monument of solid brass,* most richly gilded, 
and artificially carved. Some slight it for the cheapness, because 
it cost but a thousand pounds in the making thereof, f Such do 
not consider it as the work of so thrifty a prince, who would 
make a little money go far ; besides that it was just at the turn 
ing of the tide (as one may term it) of money, which flowed 
after the finding out of the West Indies, though ebbing before. 

Amongst the civil structures, Westminster-hall is eminent, 
erected by king William Rufus for the hall to his own court, 
built with cobwebless beams, conceived of Irish-wood. Sure I 
am, we then had no command in that island, as first subdued by 
king Henry the Second. It is one of the greatest rooms in 
Christendom ; and indeed it needeth to be of good capacity, to 
receive so many plaintiffs and defendants, being at such mutual 
distance of affection. 

Next is White-hall, the palace of our English kings, which 
one termed a good hypocrite, promising less than it performeth, 
and more convenient within than comely without ; to which the 
nursery of St. James s was an appendant. 

As for the houses of noblemen all along the Strand, I desire 
to be excused from commending some, lest it should, by cavil 
ling spirits, be implicitly interpreted a dispraise of the rest. 
Besides, I am ignorant under what name to commend them to 
posterity; so many houses daily, new-dipt, assume to them 
selves new names, according to the alteration of their owners. 
I conclude them therefore all best, and best of all whilst they 
continue in the hands of their present possessors. 

PROVERBS. 
" As sure as Exchequer pay."] 

All know, that the Exchequer was formerly the treasury of 
the kings of England, kept in this city, the pleading part on the 
one side, and the paying part on the other side of Westminster- 
hall. This proverb was in the prime thereof in the reign of 
queen Elizabeth, who maintained her Exchequer to the height, 
that her Exchequer might maintain her. The pay thereof was 
sure inwards, nothing being remitted which was due there to 
the queen : and sure outwards, nothing being detained which 
was due thence from the queen, full and speedy payment being 
made thereof. This proverb began to be crost about the end of 
the reign of king James, when the credit of the Exchequer 

* Or copper rather. f Godwin, in his Annals of King Henry VIII. anno 1. 



PRINCES. 413 

began to decay ; and no wonder if the streams issuing thence 
were shallow, when the fountain to feed them was so low, the 
revenues of the crown being much abated, 

" There is no redemption from Hell."] 

There is a place partly under, partly by the Exchequer Court, 
commonly called Hell ; I could wish it had another name, see 
ing it is ill jesting with edge-tools, especially with such as are 
sharpened by Scripture. I am informed that formerly this 
place was appointed a prison for the king^s debtors, who never 
were freed thence, until they had paid their uttermost due de 
manded of them. If so, it was no Hell, but might be termed 
purgatory, according to the popish erroneous persuasion. But, 
since, this proverb is applied to moneys paid into the Ex 
chequer, which thence are irrecoverable upon what plea or pre 
tence whatsoever. 

" As long as Megg of Westminster."] 

This is applied to persons very tall, especially if they have 
hop-pole height, wanting breadth proportionable thereunto, 
That such a giant woman ever was in Westminster, cannot be 
proved by any good witness (I pass not for a late lying pamph 
let) ; though some, in proof thereof, produce her grave-stone 
on the south-side of the cloisters, which (I confess) is as long 
and large and entire marble as ever I beheld. But be it known, 
that no woman in that age was interred in the cloisters, appro 
priated to the sepultures of the abbot and his monks. Be 
sides, I have read, in the records of that abbey, of an infectious 
year, wherein many monks died of the plague, and were all 
buried in one grave, probably in this place, under this marble 
monument. If there be any truth in the proverb, it rather re- 
lateth to a great gun, lying in the Tower, commonly called Long 
Megg, and in troublesome times (perchance upon ill May-day 
in the reign of king Henry the Eighth) brought to Westminster, 
where for a good time it continued. But this nut (perchance) 
deserves not the cracking. 

PRINCES. 

EDWARD the First was born in Westminster, being a Prince 
placed, by the posture of his nativity, betwixt a weak father and 
a wilful son. Yet he needed no such advantage for foils, to set 
forth his real worth. He was surnamed Longshanks, his step 
being another man s stride, and was very high in stature. And 
though ofttimes such who are built four stories high are ob 
served to have little in their cock-loft, yet was he a most judi 
cious man in all his undertakings ; equally wise to plot, as 
valiant to perform ; and (which under Divine Providence was 
the result of both) happy in success, at sea, at land, at home, 
abroad, in war, in peace. He was so fortunate with his sword 
at the beginning of his reign, that he awed all his enemies with 
his scabbard before the end thereof. In a word, he was a prince 



414 AVORTHIES OF WESTMINSTER. 

of so much merit, that nothing under a Chronicle can make his 
complete character. 

EDWARD, sole son to king Henry the Sixth and Margaret his 
queen, was born at Westminster, on the 13th day of October 
1453.* _ Now, when his father s party was totally and finally 
routed in the battle at Tewksbury, this prince, being taken 
prisoner, presented to king Edward the Fourth, and demanded 
by him, On what design he came over into England ?" re 
turned this answer, " That he came to recover the Crown, which 
his ancestors for three descents had no less rightfully than 
peaceably possessed." 

An answer, for the truth, befitting the son of so holy a father 
as king Henry the Sixth ; for the boldness thereof, becoming 
the son of so haughty a mother as queen Margaret. But pre 
sently king Edward dashed him on the mouth with his gauntlet, 
and his brother Richard Crookback stabbed him to the heart with 
his dagger. A barbarous murder, without countenance of justice 
in a legal or valour in a military way. And his blood then shed 
was punished not long after. 

Here I am not ashamed to make this observation ; that Eng 
land had successively three Edwards, all princes of Wales, sole 
or eldest sons to actual kings ; two dying violent, all untimely 
deaths, in their minority, before they were possessed of the 
crown; viz. 1. Edward, son to Henry VI., stabbed in the 
seventeenth year of his age. 2. Edward, son to Edward IV., 
stifled in the tenth year of his age. 3. Edward, son to Rich 
ard III., pined away in the eleventh year of his age. 

The murder of the second may justly be conceived the 
punishment of the murder of the first; and the untimely death 
of the last (of whom more in Yorkshiref) a judgment for the 
murder of the two former. 

EDWARD, eldest son of Edward the Fourth and Elizabeth 

s queen, was born in the sanctuary of Westminster, Novem 

ber 4, 1471. His tender years are too soft, for a solid character 

to be fixed on him. No hurt we find done by him, but too 

much on him, being murdered in the Tower by the procure 

ment of his uncle protector. Thus was he born in a spiritual, 

lied m a temporal, prison. He is commonly called king 

dward the Fifth, though his hand was asked but never married 

English crown ; and therefore, in all the pictures made of 

im, a distance interposed forbiddeth the banns betwixt them. 

ELIZABETH, eldest daughter of king Edward the Fourth and 

J^nzabeth his queen, was born in Westminster on the eleventh of 

uary 166.$ She was afterwards married to king Henry 



fdemf CICle P 684 f In thC tHle f 



PRINCES. 415 

the Seventh ; and so the two houses of York and Lancaster 
united first hopefully in their bed, and afterwards more happily 
in their issue. Besides her dutifulness to her husband, and 
fruitfulness in her children, little can be extracted of her per 
sonal character. She died (though not in child-bearing) ^n 
child-bed, being safely delivered on Candlemas-day, anno 1503, 
of the lady Catharine ; and, afterwards falling sick, languished 
until the eleventh of Februrary, and then died, in the thirty- 
seventh year of her age, on the day of her nativity.* She lieth 
buried with her husband in the chapel of his erection, and hath 
an equal share with him in the use and honour of that his most 
magnificent monument. 

[AMP.] CECILY, second daughter to king Edward the 
Fourth by Elizabeth his queen, bearing the name of Cecily 
duchess of York, her grandmother and godmother, was born at 
Westminster. In her childhood mention was made of a mar 
riage betwixt her and James (son to James the Third) prince of 
Scotland. But that motion died with her father, heaven 
(wherein marriages are made) reserving that place for Margaret 
her eldest sister s eldest daughter. 

She long led a single life, but little respected of king Henry 
the Seventh her brother-in-law. That politic king, knowing 
that, if he had none or no surviving issue by his queen, then 
the right of the crown rested in this Cecily, sought to suppress 
her from popularity, or any public appearance. He neither 
preferred her to any foreign prince, nor disposed of her to any 
prime peer of England, till at last this lady wedded herself to 
a Lincolnshire lord, John Baron Wells, whom king Henry ad 
vanced Viscount, and no higher. After his death, my authorf 
saith, she was remarried, not mentioning her husband s name ;J 
whence I conclude him an obscure person, and this lady rather 
married than matched, such the distance betwixt their degrees. 
Probably this Cecily, consulting her comfort more than her 
credit, did it of design, so to be beneath the jealousy of king 
Henry the Seventh. She left no children, and the date of her 
death is uncertain. 

CHARLES the Second (son to king Charles the First, of 
blessed memory, and Mary youngest daughter to Henry the 
Fourth, king of France) was born at Saint James s, May 29, 
1630. Great was the general rejoicing thereat. The university 
of Oxford congratulated his birth with printed poems ; and it 
was taken ill, though causelessly, by some, that Cambridge did 
not do the like ; for then the wits of the university were sadly 
distracted into several counties, by reason of the plague therein. 

* Speed s Chronicle, p. 703. 

f Idem, in the end of the reign of king Edward the Fourth. 
say his name was A i/mi\ 



41 G WORTHIES OF WESTMINSTER. 

And I remember, Cambridge modestly excused herself in their 
poem made the year after, at the birth of the lady Mary ; and 
it will not be amiss to insert and translate one tetrastic, made 
by my worthy friend, Master Booth, of Christ s College, 
Cambridge. 

Quod fuit ad nixus academic, muta priores, 

Ignoscat princess Carolus, eegrafuit. 
Spe venieiile noi-A si tune tacuisset amores, 

Non tanliim morbo digna, sed ilia mori. 

" Prince Charles, forgive me, that my silent quill, 

Joy d not thy birth ; alas sore sick was I. 

New hopes now ccrme ; had I been silent still, 

I should deserve both to be sick and die." 

His birth was accompanied with two notable accidents in the 
heavens. The star Venus was visible all day long, as sometime 
it falls out near her greatest elongation. And two days after 
there was an eclipse of the sun, about eleven digits, observed 
by the greatest mathematicians.* 

And now, reader, give me leave to be silent myself, and pre 
sent thee with the expressions of a most ingenious gentle 
man : 

" To behold this babe, heaven itself seemed to open one eye 

more than ordinary. Such asterisks and celestial signatures 

affixt to times so remarkable as this, usually are ominous, pro 
phetically hinting and pointing out somewhat future of eminent 

contingency/ t 

Yea, such have since been the occurrences in the life of this 
pious prince, that, rightly considered, they will appear (not 
only eminent above the common standard of factions, but) 
full of miracle and amazement. 

He was, on the first of January 1650, at Scone, crowned king 
of Scotland ; being before invaded by an army under the con 
duct of Oliver Cromwell. Soon after quitting that kingdom, he 
marched for England; and on the third of September 1651, 
nigh Worcester,^ was fought, and lost the day, though he (to use 
my author s expression) " acted beyond the expectation of his 
friends, and to the great applause of his very enemies." Narrow 
search was made after his person, yea a thousand pounds (a bait 
his politic enemies made sure would have been bit at) promised 
to such who should betray him. Yet God (whose angels were 
his life-guard) miraculously preserving him out of the hands of 
his enemies, he safely passed over into France to the queen his 
mother. 

During his continuance beyond the seas, great were the prof 
fers tendered unto him if forsaking the Protestant religion; 
but, alas ! as soon might the impotent waves remove the most 

* Bainbridge and Gassendus. 

( Hamond L Estran^e, in the reign of king Charles the First, p. 112. 

t See " BATTLES " in Worcestershire. 

Doctor Heylin, in his Life of King Charles, p. 155. 



PRINCES. 417 

sturdy rocks, as tliey once unfix him ; such his constancy, 
whom neither the frowns of his afflictions, nor smiles of secular 
advantages, could make to warp from his first principles. 

At length his piety and patience were rewarded by God, with 
a happy restitution to his undoubted dominions ; and he, after 
a long and tedious exile, landed at Dover, May 25, 1660, to the 
great joy of his three kingdoms. 

A prince whose virtues I should injure, if endeavouring their 
contraction within so narrow a scantling. And yet I cannot 
pass over that wherein he so much resembleth the king of hea 
ven (whose vicegerent he is) ; I mean his merciful disposition, 
doing good unto those who spitefully used and persecuted him. 

And now it is my hearty prayer, that God, who appeared so 
wonderfully in his restoration, would continue still gracious to 
us in his preservation, confounding the plots of his adversaries, 
that upon him and his posterity the crown may flourish for 
ever. 

MARY, eldest daughter of king Charles the First and queen 
Mary, was born at Saint James s, November 4, 1631. When 
her royal father, out of his paternal love, began to cast about 
for a fitting consort, this peerless princess (though tender in 
years, rich in piety and wisdom) made it her humble request 
she might be matched as well in her religion as affection ; which 
happened answerable to her desires ; for, not long after, a mar 
riage, treated betwixt her and count William of Nassau, eldest 
son to Henry prince of Orange, was concluded ; and this royal 
pair wedded accordingly, May 2, 1641. The February follow 
ing, having at Dover taken her leave of the king her father (the 
last time she ever saw him on earth) she embarked for, and 
within few days landed in, Holland. 

His majesty s affairs in England daily growing worse and worse, 
at length the sad news of his horrid murder arrived at her ears : 
this was seconded with the loss of her husband the prince of 
Orange, who deceased October 8, 1650. Yet such her signal 
patience, that she underwent the weight of so many heavy af 
flictions, sufficient to break the back of a mean Christian, with 
a courage far surpassing the weakness of her sex. But, amidst 
these her calamities, God was pleased to remember mercy, bless 
ing her the November ensuing with a hopeful son. 

The complexion of the times being altered in England, she 
came over to congratulate the happiness of her brother s mira 
culous restitution ; when, behold, sickness arrests this royal 
princess, no bail being found by physic to defer the execution 
of her death, which happened 1660. On the 31st of December 
following, she was honourably [though privately] interred at 
Westminster, in the chapel of king Henry the Seventh ; and no 
eye so dry but willingly afforded a tear to bemoan the loss of so 
worthy a princess. 

VOL. II. 2 E 



418 WORTHIES OF WESTMINSTER. 

JAMES, third son of king Charles and queen Mary, was born 
October 13, 1633, at St. James s. He was commonly styled 
duke of York, though not solemnly created until January 27, 
1643. At the rendition of Oxford, he was taken prisoner ; and 
some two years after, through the assistance of one colonel 
Bamfield, made his escape, landing safe in Holland. Hence he 
went for France ; where he so prudently deported himself, that 
lie soon gained the favour and honour of the whole court. Yea, 
such was this prince s valour and prowess, that, before arrived 
at the age of one and twenty years, he was made lieutenant ge 
neral of the forces of the king of France ; a thing which sounds 
highly to the esteem of this duke, being a sufficient argument 
as well of his policy as magnanimity ; seeing a wise head is 
equally required warily to consult, as a stout heart resolutely to 
act, for the due performance of that office. 

This trust he discharged to the admiration of all, achieving 
so many noble and heroic exploits, which rendered him re 
nowned throughout the Christian w r orld. Yet such the baseness 
and ingratitude of the French, that, concluding a peace with 
Oliver Cromwell, the Usurper of England, they wholly forgot 
his former services, and consented to the expulsion of this 
prince and his royal brothers out of that kingdom. 

True valour cannot long lie neglected. Soon was he courted 
by Don John de Austria into Flanders, where, in the action at 
Dunkirk, he far surpassed his former deeds, often forgetting 
that he was a prince, to shew himself a true soldier ; such his 
hazarding his person, really worth ten thousand of them, to the 
great molestation of his true friends. 

Since God, out of his infinite love to the English, hath safely 
returned this duke to his native country ; where that he may 
long live, to be the joy and delight of the whole nation, I shall 
constantly beg of God in my daily devotions. 

ELIZABETH, second daughter of king Charles the First and 
queen Mary, was born at Saint James s, anno 1635, on the 28th 
day of December. She proved a lady of parts above her age, 
the quickness of her mind making recompence for the weakness 
of her body. For the remainder of her life, I will hold my 
peace ; and listen to my good friend Master John Buroughs,* 
thus expressing himself in a letter unto me : 

" The Princess Elizabeth, with her brother Henry duke of 
Gloucester, being, by order rf Parliament, to be removed to 
Carisbrook-castle in the Isle of Wight (where his most excellent 
majesty was lately a prisoner) were accordingly received by Mr. 
Anthony Mildmay, from the earl and countess of Leicester, at 
Penshurst in Kent ; and began their unwilling journey on Fri 
day, 9th of August, 1650. On the 16th of the same month, 
they were first lodged in Carisbrook-castle aforesaid. 

* Nov/ Clerk of Stationers-hall, then an attendant of the Lady. F. 



PRINCES. 419 



ec 



The princess being of a melancholy temper (as affected 
above her age with the sad condition of her family) fell sick 
about the beginning of September following, and continued so 
for three- or four days, having only the advice of doctor Bignall, 
a worthy and able physician of Newport. After very many 
rare ejaculatory expressions, abundantly demonstrating her un 
paralleled piety, to the eternal honour of her own memory, and 
"he astonishment of those who waited on her, she took leave of 
he world on Sunday the eighth of the same September. 

" Her body, being embalmed, was carefully disposed of in a 
offin of lead, and on the four and twentieth of the said month, 
^as brought (in a borrowed coach) from the Castle to the town 
of Newport, attended thither with her few late servants. At 
the end of the town the corpse was met and waited on by the 
mayor and aldermen thereof in their formalities to the church, 
where, about the middle of the east part of the chancel in Saint 
Thomas s chapel, her highness was interred in a small vault 
purposely made, with an inscription of the date of her death en 
graved on her coffin." 

The hawks of Norway, where a winter s day is hardly an 
hour of clear light, are the swiftest of wing of any fowl under 
the firmament, nature teaching them to bestir themselves, to 
lengthen the shortness of the time with their swiftness. Such 
the active piety of this lady, improving the little life allotted 
her, " in running the way of God s commandments." 

ANNE, third daughter to king Charles the First and queen 
Mary, was born at Saint James s, March 17, anno Domini 1637- 
She was a very pregnant lady above her age, and died in her in 
fancy when not full four years old. Being minded by those 
about her to call upon God even when the pangs of death were 
upon her ;* " I am not able," saith she, "to say my long prayer 
(meaning the Lord s-prayer) ; but I will say my short one, 
Lighten mine eyes, O Lord, lest I sleep the sleep of death."f 
This done, the little lamb gave up the ghost. 

KATHARINE, fourth daughter to king Charles the First and 
queen Mary, was born at White- hall (the queen-mother then 
being at Saint James s), and survived not above half an hour 
after her baptizing ; so that it is charity to mention her whose 
memory is likely to be lost, so short her continuance in this life, 
the rather, because her name is not entered, as it ought, into 
the register of Saint Martin s in the Fields ; as indeed none of 
the king s children, save Prince Charles, though they were born 
in that parish. And hereupon a story depends. 

I am credibly informed that, at the birth of every child of 
the king born at White-hall or Saint James s, full five pounds 

* Mistress Conant, a Rocker, to whom she sjnke it F. f Psalm xiii. 3. 

2 E 2 



420 WORTHIES OF WESTMINSTER. 

were ever faithfully paid to some unfaithful receivers thereof, to 
record the names of such children in the register of Saint Mar 
tin s. But the money being embezzled (we know by some, 
God knows by whom) no memorial is entered of them. Sad, 
that bounty should betray any to such baseness, and that which 
was intended to make them the more solemnly remembered, 
should occasion that they should be more silently forgotten ! 

Say not, Let the children of mean persons be written down 
in registers ; kings children are registers to themselves, or all 
England is a register to them ; for sure I am, this common 
confidence hath been the cause that we have been so often at a 
loss about the nativities and other properties of those of royal 
extraction. 

CHARLES STUART, son to the illustrious James Stuart duke 
of York, by Anne, daughter to the Right Honourable Edward 
Hide earl of Clarendon and lord chancellor of England and 
Frances his lady, descended of the ancient family of the Ayles- 
buries, high- sheriffs for many years together of Bedford and 
Buckinghamshire, in the reign of king Edward the Second and 
Third,* was born at Worcester-house, 22d day of October 1660, 
and christened by the Right Reverend Father in God, Gilbert, 
lord bishop of London, his majesty, and George duke of Albe- 
marle being his godfathers, and Mary the queen-mother his 
godmother; he was declared duke of Cambridge, a title which, 
to the great honour of that university, for these four hundred 
years, hath been only conferred either on foreign princes, or per 
sons of the royal blood. This princely infant died May 5, 1661. 

SAINTS. 

Saint WULSY, being a man reputed when living (and reported 
when dead) of great virtue and innocency,t was, by Saint Dun- 
stan, created the first abbot of Westminster, where he lived 
many years very exemplary for his conversation, until his death, 
which happened anno Domini 960. Then was his body buried 
in the same monastery ; and the 26th day of September was 
kept by the citizens of London with great veneration of his mi 
racle-working memory. 

MARTYRS. 

I meet with none in this city, and in my mean judgment it 
is most observable that London having two pages (as I may 
term them) attending it, viz. Westminster and Southwark, both 
joined to it in buildings, should be so different from it in con 
dition ; in London, we have no room to hold martyrs ; in the 
other two, no martyrs to take up any room. 

Inquiring the cause thereof, we find these three places (though 

* See our list of " SHERIFFS," in that county, 
t Matthew of Westminster, ad ann. Domini 958. 



CONFESSORS PRELATES. 421 

contiguous, not to say continued) in the reign of queen Mary 
under three several jurisdictions : London under bloody Bonner, 
who made havoc of all he could come at ; Southwark, under po 
litic Gardiner, who took wit in his anger, of whom formerly ;* 
this Westminster under John Fecknam, abbot thereof with 
power episcopal, a man cruel to none, courteous and charitable 
to all who needed his help or liberality. 



CONFESSORS. 

Rain (which country people say goeth by planets) goeth by 
Providence. " I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it 
not to rain upon another ."f Persecution observeth the same 
method, ordered by the same power and pleasure. A shower of 
blood fell upon London, whilst Westminster, the next city, did 
escape ; so that I find neither martyr nor confessor therein. 
Meeting with none before, let us proceed to 

PRELATES SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

RICHARD NEILE was born in King s Street in this city, and 
was bred in St. John s College in Cambridge ; he was afterwards 
vicar of Cheshunt in the county of Hertford, presented there 
unto by the honourable family of the Cecils. He was the first 
and last native of this city who became the dean, and so the 
supreme magistrate thereof. Through many bishoprics, of Co 
ventry and Lichfield, Durham, and Winchester, he was at last 
preferred archbishop of York, being also privy councillor to king 
James and king Charles. He died anno Domini 1641. 

JOHN WARNER, D.D. was born in the parish of Saint Cle 
ment Danes, within the precincts of this city ; bred in Magdalen 
College in Oxford ; at last preferred bishop of Rochester. J 

This worthy bishop, perceiving the want of a fixed font in 
the cathedral church of Canterbury, bestowed one upon it; 
whether more curious or costly my author could not decide 
it, being both ways so excellent and exquisite ; a gift the more 
remarkable, because the first which hath been offered by any 
private hand to that church of later times. || But I suspect now 
this font itself is washed away, in the deluge of our late wars, 
under the notion of superstition. 

God hath given him a great estate, and a liberal heart to make 
use of it ; keeping good hospitality in the Christmas at Bromley. 
As he fed many poor, so he freed himself from much trouble ; 
being absent when the rest of the bishops subscribed their pro 
test in Parliament, whereby he enjoyed liberty in the restraint 
of others of his order. He was an able and active advocate for 
episcopacy in the House of Lords, speaking for them as long 

* See " Martyrs " in Hampshire. f Amos iv. 7. 

+ So informed from his own mouth ED, 

W. Somner, in the Antiquity of Canterbury, p. 181. || Idem, ib detu. 



422 WORTHIES OF WESTMINSTER. 

as he had any voice left him ; and then willing to have made 
signs in their just defence, if it might have been permitted him. 
But it is now high time for me to put out my candle, when 
day-light shines so bright ; I mean to desist from charactering of 
persons who are so perfectly known to so many alive, I will 
only add, this eminent prelate hath since seen the happy resti 
tution of his order, enjoying again his former dignity, who now 
is (and long maybe) living, 1661.* 

STATESMEN. 

Sir FRANCIS BACON, Knight, youngest son to Sir Nicholas 
Bacon, lord keeper, was born in York House, anno 1560 ; for, 
being demanded his age by queen Elizabeth, he returned, "that 
he was two years younger than her majesty s reign." He was 
bred in Trinity College in Cambridge, and there first fell into a 
dislike of Aristotle s Philosophy, as barren and jejune, enabling 
some to dispute, more to wrangle, few to find out truth, and 
none, if confining themselves to his principles. 

Hence it was that afterwards he traded so largely in experi 
ments ; so that, as Socrates is said to be the first who stooped 
towering speculations into practical morality, Sir Francis was 
one of the first who reduced notional to real and scientifical 
philosophy. 

He was afterwards bred in Gray s Inn, in the study of our 
municipal law, attaining to great eminency, but no preferment 
therein, during the reign of queen Elizabeth ; imputable to the 
envy of a great person, who hindered his rising, for fear to be 
hindered by him if risen, and eclipsed in his own profession. 
Thus the strongest wing of merit cannot mount, if a stronger 
weight of malice doth depress it. Yet was he even then fa 
vourite to a favourite, I mean the earl of Essex, and more true 
to him- than the earl was to himself: for, finding him to prefer 
destructive before displeasing counsel, Sir Francis fairly forsook 
not his person (whom his pity attended to the grave) but prac 
tices ; and herein was not the worse friend for being the better 
subject. 

By king James he was made his solicitor, and afterwards his 
attorney (then privileged, contrary to custom, to sit a member 
in Dom. Com.} ; and at last lord chancellor of England.f His 
abilities were a clear confutation of two vulgar errors (libels on 
learned men) : first, that judgment, wit, fancy, and memory, 
cannot eminently be in conjunction in the same person ; where 
as our knight was a rich cabinet, filled with all four, besides a 
golden key to open it, Elocution. Secondly, "That he who is 
something in all, is nothing in any one art ; " whereas he was 
singular in ringuUs, and, being in-at-all. came off with credit. 

Such who condemn him for pride, if in his place, with the 

* He died in 1666 ED. f See his life written by Dr. Rawleigh. 



STATESMEN WRITERS. 423 

fifth part of his parts, had been ten times prouder themselves. 
He had been a better master if he had been a worse, being too 
bountiful to his servants, and either too confident of their ho 
nesty, or too conniving at their falsehood. The story is told to 
his. advantage, that he had two servants, one in all causes patron 
to the plaintiff (whom his charity presumed always injured), the 
other to the defendant (pitying him as compelled to law) ; but 
taking bribes of both, with this condition, to restore the money 
received if the cause went against them. Their lord, ignorant 
hereof, always did impartial justice ; whilst his men (making 
people pay for what was given them) by compact shared the 
money betwixt them, which cost their master the loss of his 
office. 

Leading a private life, he much delighted to study in the 
shade of solitariness; and many useful discoveries in nature 
were made by him, so that he may be said to have left nothing 
to his executors, and all to his heirs, under which notion the 
learned of all ages may be beheld. His vast bounty to such 
who brought him presents from great persons occasioned his 
want afterwards, who, in rewarding them, so remembered that 
he had been lord chancellor, that he forgot that he was but the 
lord Verulam. 

A Viscounty that began ended in him dying issueless ; it 
being remarkable, that though we have had two earls (of several 
families)* of Saint Alban s ; yet was there no Lord Verulam, as 
if it were reserved for that ancient Roman colony to be buried 
in its own reverend ruins and in this peerless lord s everlasting 
memory, much admired by English, more by outlandish men ; 
distance diminishing his faults to be invisible to foreign eyes, 
whilst we behold his affections abated with his failings. 

He died, anno Domini 1626, in the house of the Earl of 
Arundel at Highgate, and was buried in St. MichaePs church 
in St. Alban s, Master Mutis his grateful servant erecting a 
monument for him. Since I have read that, his grave being 
occasionally opened, his skull (the relic of civil veneration) was 
by one King, a doctor of physic, made the object of scorn and 
contempt ; but he, who then derided the dead, is since become 
the laughing-stock of the living. 

WRITERS. 

SULCARD of WESTMINSTER was an Englishman by birth, 
bred a Benedictine monk. He was one of an excellent wit, 
meek disposition, candid behaviour, and in great esteem with 
king Edward the Confessor.f What progress he made in learn 
ing, may easily be collected from what is recorded in an old 
manuscript; " In Westmonasterio vixerunt simul Abbas Ead- 

* Lord Burgh of Ireland, and Lord Henry Jermyn. 
f Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannkis, Cent. ii. num. 55 



424 WORTHIES OF WESTMINSTER. 

winus et Sulchardus Ccenobita ; sed Sulchardus doctrina. major 
erat." He flourished anno Domini 1 070, under king William 
the Conqueror. 

GILBERT of WESTMINSTER, bred first monk, then abbot 
thereof. He gave himself to the study of human learning, then 
of divinity, and, through the guidance of Anselme archbishop of 
Canterbury, attained to great knowledge in the Scriptures. 
Afterwards he studied in France, visited Rome, in his return 
from whence he is reported to have had a disputation with a 
learned Jew, which afterwards he reduced into the form of a 
dialogue, and, making it public, he dedicated it to Saint 
Anselme. He died anno 1117, and was buried in West 
minster. 

MATTHEW of WESTMINSTER was bred a monk therein, and 
as accomplished a scholar as any of his age. Observable is the 
grand difference betwixt our English history, as he found it, 
and as he left it. He found it, like Polyphemus when his eye 
was bored out, a big and bulky body, but blind. Memorable 
actions were either presented without any date, which little 
informed, or too many dates, which more distracted, the reader. 
Our Matthew reduced such confused sounds to an articulate 
and intelligible voice, regulating them by a double directory of 
time, viz. the beginnings and deaths of all the kings of England 
and archbishops of Canterbury. He wrote one history from 
the beginning of the world to Christ ; a second, from Christ s 
Nativity to the Norman Conquest ; a third, from thence to the 
beginning of king Edward the Second, augmenting it afterwards 
with the addition of his life, and king Edward the Third s. He 
named his book " Flores Historiarum ; " and if sometimes (for 
it is but seldom) he presenteth a flower less fragrant, or blasted 
bud, the judicious reader is not tied to take what he tenders, 
but may select for his own ease a nosegay of the choicest 
flowers thereof. He died about the year 1368. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

BENJAMIN JONSON was born in this city. Though I can 
not, with all my industrious inquiry, find him in his cradle, 
I can fetch him from his long coats. When a little child, 
he lived in Harts- horn-lane near Charing-cross, where his 
mother married a bricklayer for her second husband. 

He was first bred in a private school in Saint Martin s 
church; then in Westminster school; witness his own epi 
gram ;* 

" Camden, most reverend head, to whom I owe 
All that I am in arts, all that I know ; 

* Epigram 14. 



WRITERS MUSICIANS. 425 

How nothing s that to whom my country owes 

The great renown and name wherewith she goes," &c. 

He was statutably admitted into Saint John s College in Cam 
bridge (as many years after incorporated an honorary member 
of Christ Church in Oxford) where he continued but few weeks 
for want of further maintenance, being fain to return to the 
trade of his father-in-law. And let them blush not that have, 
but those who have not, a lawful calling. He helped in the 
new structure of LincolnVInn, when, having a trowel in 
his hand, he had a book in his pocket. 

Some gentlemen, pitying that his parts should be buried 
under the rubbish of so mean a calling, did by their bounty 
manumise him freely to follo\v his own ingenious inclinations. 
Indeed his parts were not so ready to run of themselves, as- 
able to answer the spur ; so that it may be truly said of him, 
that he had an elaborate wit wrought out by his own industry. 
He would sit silent in a learned company, and suck in (besides 
wine) their several humours into his observation. What was 
ore in others, he was able to refine to himself. 

He was paramount in the dramatic part of poetry, and taught 
the stage an exact conformity to the laws of comedians. His 
comedies were above the volge (which are only tickled with 
downright obscenity), and took not so well at the first stroke as 
at the rebound, when beheld the second time ; yea, they will 
endure reading, and that with due commendation, so long as 
either ingenuity or learning are fashionable in our nation. If 
his later be not so spriteful and vigorous as his first pieces, all 
that are old will, and all that desire to be old should, excuse 
him therein. 

He was not very happy in his children, and most happy in 
those which died first, though none lived to survive him. This 
he bestowed as part of an epitaph on his eldest son, dying in 

infancy : 

" Rest in soft peace ; and, ask d, say here doth lye, 
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry."* 

He died anno Domini 1638 ; and was buried about the belfry, 
in the abbey church at Westminster. 

MASTERS OF MUSIC. 

[S.N.] CHRISTOPHER TYE, doctor of music, flourished in 
the reign of king Henry the Eighth and king Edward the 
Sixth, to whom he was one of the gentlemen of their chapel, 
and probably the organist. Music, which received a grievous 
wound in England at the dissolution of abbeys, was much be 
holding to him for her recovery ; such his excellent skill and 
piety, that he kept it up in credit at court and in all cathedrals 

* Epigram 45. 



426 



WORTHIES OF WESTMINSTER. 



during his life. He translated the Acts of the Apostles into 
verse ; and let us take a taste of his poetry : 



" In the former treatise to thee 

Dear friend Theophilus ; 
I hare written the veritie 
Of the Lord Christ Jesus. 

Which he to do, and eke to teach, 

Began until the day 
In which the Spirit up did him fetch, 

To dwell above for aye. 

After that he had the power to do 
Even by the Holy Ghost ; 

Commandements then he gave unto 
His chosen least and most. 



To whom also himself did shew 

From death thus to revive : 
By tokens plain unto his few 
Even forty days alive. 

Speaking of God s kingdome with heart, 

Chusing together them ; 
Commanding them not to depart 

From that Jerusalem. 

But still to wait on the promise 

Of his Father the Lord ; 
Of which ye have heard me ere this 

Unto you make record." 



Pass we now from this poetry (being music in words} to his 
music (being poetry in sounds], who set an excellent composi 
tion of music of four parts to the several chapters of his afore 
mentioned poetry, dedicating the same to king Edward the 
Sixth, a little before the death of that good prince, and printed 
it anno Domini 1553. He also did compose many excellent 
services and anthems of four and five parts, which were used in 
cathedrals many years after his death,, the certain date whereof 
I cannot attain. 

JOHN DOULAND was (as I have most cause to believe) born 
in this city ; sure I am he had his longest life and best live 
lihood therein, being servant in the chapel to queen Elizabeth 
and king James, He was the rarest musician that his age did 
behold; having travelled beyond the seas, and compounded 
English with foreign skill in that faculty, it is questionable 
whether he excelled in vocal or instrumental music. A cheer 
ful person he was, passing his days in lawful merriment, truly 
answering the anagram made of him.,* " JOHANNES DOULAN- 
DUS," (annos ludendo hausi.) 

Christian the Fourth, king of Denmark, coming over into 
England, requested him of king James ; who unwillingly willing 
parted with him. Many years he lived (as I am credibly in 
formed) in the Danish court, in great favour and plenty, gene 
rally employed to entertain such English persons of quality as 
came thither. I cannot confidently avouch his death at Den 
mark, but believe it more probably than their assertion who 
report him returned and dying in England about the year 
1615. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

JAMES PALMER, B,D. was born in this city, and bred in Mag 
dalen College in Cambridge. The company of Carpenters in 
London gave him an exhibition towards his maintenance there, 

* By Ralph Sadler, Esq. of Standon in Hertfordshire, who was with him at 
Copenhagen. F. 



BENEFACTORS MEMORABLE PERSONS. 427 

or lent it him rather ; for, since, his bounty hath repaid them 
the principal with plentiful consideration. He was afterwards 
for many years the constant preacher of Saint Bridget s in 
Fleet-street, the only church preferment he enjoyed. I per 
ceive thus craft and cruelty may raise a quick and great, but 
plain frugality (especially if vivacious) will advance a better and 
surer, estate. Though sequestered in these times, what he had 
formerly gained in his place he hath since bestowed in building 
and endowing, over against the new chapel in Westminster, a 
fair alms-house for twelve poor people. Besides this, many and 
great have his gifts been to ministers poor widows. And won 
der not, reader, if they be unknown to me, which were unknown 
to his own left hand. All this he did in his life-time. Oh, it 
giveth the best light, when one carriethhis lanthorn before him ! 
The surest way that one s will shall be performed, is to see it 
performed. Yea, I may say that his poor people in his alms- 
house are in some sort provided for, not only from head to 
foot, but also from body to soul, he constantly preaching to 
them twice a week. He died anno 1659. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

[S. N.] EDMOND DOUBLEDAY, Esquire, was of a tall and 
proper person, and lived in this city. Nor had this large case 
a little jewel, this long body a lazy soul, whose activity and 
valour was adequate to his strength and greatness, whereof he 
gave this eminent testimony. 

When Sir Thomas Knevet was sent, November 4, 1605, by 
king James, to search the cellar beneath the Parliament-house, 
with very few, for the more privacy, to attend him, he took 
Master Doubleday with him. Here they found Guy Faux, with 
his dark-lanthorn, in the dead of the night, providing for the 
death of many the next morning. He was newly come out 
of the Devil s Closet (so I may fitly term the inward room where 
the powder lay, and the train was to be laid) into the outward 
part of the cellar. Faux beginning to bustle, Master Doubleday 
instantly ordered him at his pleasure, up with his heels, and 
there with the traitor lay the treason flat along the floor, by 
God s goodness detected, defeated. Faux vowed (and, though 
he was a false traitor, herein I do believe him) that, had he 
been in the inner room, he would have blown up himself and 
all the company therein. Thus it is pleasant music to hear 
disarmed malice threaten, when it cannot strike. Master Dou 
bleday lived many years after, deservedly loved and respected ; 
and died about the year of our Lord 1618. 

THE FAREWELL. 

Seeing the well-being (yea being) of this city consisteth in 
the king s court and in the courts of justice, I congratulate the 
happy return of the one, praying for the long continuance of 



428 WORTHIES OF MIDDLESEX. 

the other ; yea, may the lawyers in Westminster-hall never 
again plead in their armour (as they did in the time of Wyat^s 
rebellion), but in their peaceable gowns and legal formalities. 
Nor doth this wish only extend to the weal of Westminster, but 
all England ; for no such dearth in a land, as what is caused 
from a drought of justice therein; for, if "judgment do not 
run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream,"* 
injustice, like an ocean, will drown all with its inundation. 



WORTHIES OF MIDDLESEX WHO HAVE FLOURISHED SINCE THE 

TIME OF FULLER f 

Jeremy BENTHAM, political writer; born in London 1747; 

died 1832. 

Charles BOYLE, Earl of Orrery, statesman and scholar, antago 
nist of Bentley ; born at Little Chelsea 1676 ; died 1731. 
Isaac Hawkins BROWNE, Esq., M.P., F.R.S., essayist ; born in 

London 1746; died 1818. 
Right Hon. Geo. CANNING, illustrious statesman; born in 

London 1770; died 1827. 
Edward Daniel CLARKE, LL.D., traveller and classical scholar ; 

born 1767; died 1821. 
George COLMAN, dramatic writer; born in London 1762; 

died 1836. 

Charles COMBE, M.D., classical scholar, and editor of " Ho 
race ;" born in London 1743 ; died 1807. 
Taylor COMBE, antiquary, classical scholar, and author ; born 

1774 ; died 1826. 
Rev. J. J. CONYBEARE, antiquary and author; born 1779 5 

died 1824. 
Rev. Archdeacon COXE, historian, biographer, and traveller; 

born in London 1747 ; died 1828. 

Daniel DANCER, miser; born near Harrow 1716; died 1794. 
Daniel FINCH, third Earl of Nottingham, statesman and scholar ; 

born at Kensington 1689; died 1730. 
Henry Fox, Lord Holland, statesman, rival of Pitt Earl of 

Chatham; born at Chiswick 1705 ; died 1774. 
Charles James Fox, son of the preceding, illustrious statesman 

and scholar; born 1748; died 1806. 
Richard GOUGH, the modern Camden; born 1735; died at 

Enfield 1809. 

Joseph GRIMALDI, clown; born in London 1779 ; died 1837. 



* Amos v. 24. 

f Many distinguished individuals, who from their long connexion with the 
Metropolis might, without any impropriety, be classed under this head, will be 
found in the respective counties which gave them birth ED. 



WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 429 

Edmund HALLEY, astronomer and mathematician ; born at 
Haggerston 1656; died 1741. 

William HAWES, physician, founder of the Humane Society; 
born at Islington 1753 ; died 1808. 

Richard HEBER, M.P., classical scholar and celebrated biblio 
maniac; born in Westminster 1773; died 1834. 

Nathaniel HODGES, physician, historian of the plague ; born at 
Kensington; died 1684. 

John Gale JONES, political orator; born in London 1771 J 
died 1838. 

John HOWARD, philanthropist, visitor of prisons ; born at 
Hackney 1726 ; died 1790. 

Edmund KEAN, great tragic actor; born in London 1787; 
died 1832. 

Dr. William KING, principal of St. Mary s Hall, Oxford, politi 
cian, poet, and scholar; born at Stepney 1663 ; died 1712. 

Edward LOVIBOND, poet, author of " Tears of Old May Day;" 
born near Hampton; died 1775. 

Charles MATTHEWS, comedian; born in London 1770; died 
1835. 

Richard MEAD, physician and author; born at Stepney 1673; 
died 1754. 

Rev. Dr. MILNER, F.S.A., catholic divine and learned author; 
born in London 1752 ; died 1826. 

Sir George NARES, judge; born at Stanwell 1716. 

James NARES, musician and composer; born at Stanwell 1715 ; 
died 1783. 

Joseph NOLLEKENS, eminent sculptor ; born in London 1737 ; 
died 1823. 

Richard NORTHALL, archbishop of Dublin; born at Northall; 
died 1397. 

William PAGE, divine, schoolmaster, and translator; born at 
Harrow ; died 1663. 

Charles PRATT, first Earl Camden, lord chancellor; born at 
Kensington 1714; died 1794. 

Sir Thomas Stamford RAFFLES, great Oriental scholar; born 
at sea 1781 ; died 1826. 

Stephen Peter RIGAUD, Savilian professor of Astronomy at 
Oxford, &c. ; born at Richmond 1774; died 1839. 

Sir Samuel ROMILLY, M.P., celebrated advocate and states 
man; born in 17^7; died 1818. 

William SHARPE, eminent engraver; born in London 1749; 
died 1824. 

George STEEVENS, commentator on Shakspeare ; born at 
Poplar 1735; died 1809. 

Charles Alfred STOTHARD, historical draughtsman and painter ; 
born in London 1787; killed 1821. 

Brook TAYLOR, author on Linear Perspective ; born at Edmon 
ton 1685; died 1731. 



4.30 WORKS RELATIVE TO MIDDLESEX. 

Thomas TAYLOR, the Platonist, metaphysician,, and Greek 
translator; born in London 1758; died 1836. 

Mrs. THICKXESSE, accomplished authoress of " The School of 
Fashion," &c. ; born in London 1737 ; died 1824. 

Richard WESTALL, R.A., historical painter; born in London ; 
died 1837. 

Robert WOODCOCK, painter of sea-pieces ; born at Chelsea 1690. 



*** Of Middlesex, there has been no general historian ; and indeed, from the 
ever fluctuating nature of property and constant change of families, in this popu 
lous and wealthy county, it is almost impossible there could have been a regular 
topographical history. So early as 1593, however, the " Speculum Britannise," 
(the first Part containing an historical and chorographical Description of Middlesex) 
was brought out ; and in 1663, the " Visitation of Middlesex " was published by 
Ryley and Dethick. Since that period innumerable histories, local descriptions, 
and illustrative views of London, Westminster, and places adjoining, have made 
tlieir appearance. " Of London, strictly speaking (says Mr. John Nichols) there is 
no topographical description ; and it is almost impossible that there should be. 
Independent of the numerous chartered companies, almost each of which possesses 
a considerable share of property in the city, the number of freeholders is very 
large. Yet there are few or no great families, through whom the descent of pro 
perty can be regularly traced, as in the surrounding counties ; where in every parish 
the manor or manors have passed, if not from father to son, at least by purchase 
from one family to another. 1 The earliest description of London was written in 
Latin by Fitz-Stephen, which has been more than once translated into English, 
and forms the basis of every subsequent history. In its Ecclesiastical history and 
antiquities, London has been fortunate. In addition to the laudable endeavours 
of John Stow, to which Dr. Fuller acknowledges frequent obligations, may be 
added the still more accurate researches of his continuator, Mr. Strype ; Howel s 
" Londinopolis ;" the "New View of London," 1708; Newcourt s Repertorium, 
1708 ; Warburtons London and Middlesex, 1749 ; the Survey of London by Sey 
mour ; besides the Works of Maitland, Entick, Nousthouck, Pennant, Malcolm, &c. 

The histories of the city of Westminster have in general been included in the 
many volumes descriptive of London. But there are several separate publications, 
particularly on the antiquities of its beautiful and magnificent Abbey Church. Of 
these, the first printed account is by Camden, in 1600; followed by Taylor in 
1684 ; by Dart in 1722 ; by Widmore in 1731 and 1743 ; and by Smith in 1807. 

In addition to the preceding, the following list of Works, illustrative of the history 
of the County and the Metropolis, may be enumerated in alphabetical order: 

Bayley s Tower of London. Brayley s Londinia. Brace s Account of Savoy 
Palace. Charities of London, from Report of Parliamentary Commissioners. Col- 
naghi s Views of London and Westminster, by Watts, Angus, and Medland, with 
Descriptions. Denham s Account of St. Dunstan s in the West. Ducarel s History 
of St. Katharine s. Dugdale s St. Paul s, by Ellis. Ecclesiastical Topography, or 
History of 100 Churches near London. Ellis s History of Shoreditch, 1798. 
Faulkner s History of Fulham, of Kensington, and of Chelsea. Fisher s Plates to 
illustrate Lysons s Environs. Gwilt s St. Paul s Cathedral. Gvvynne s London 
Improved. Ironside s History of Twickenham, 1797. Kempe s Account of St. 
Martin-le-Grand. Lysons s Environs of London, 1795; and also an Account of 
various Parishes in the County of Middlesex, 1800. Middleton s Agriculture of 
Middlesex, 1807. Nash s Views to illustrate Pennant s London. Nelson s His 
tory and Antiquities of Islington. New View of London, 1701. Nichols s Account 
of Guildhall, the History of Canonbury, and Account of St. Katharine s Hospital, 
&c. Park s Hampstead. Dr. Wm. Robinson s Histories of Edmonton, of Totten 
ham, of Stoke Newington, and of Enfield. Smith s History of Marylebone, of 
Westminster, and Ancient Topography of London. Topham s St. Stephen s Chapel. 
Wilkinson s Account of St. Martin Outwich. Wilson s Christ s Hospital, &c. &c. 
Eo. 



M O N M U T H S H I R E. 



MONMOUTHSHIRE. I may fitly call this an English-Welsh 
county ;* for, though it lie west of Severn, yea of Wye itself, 
and though the Welsh be the common language thereof, yet it 
doth wear a double badge of English relation. First, whereas 
formerly all Welch counties sent but one knight to the Parlia 
ment, this had the privilege of two, conformable to the shires of 
England. Secondly, it is not subject to the Welch jurisdic 
tion ; but such itinerant judges as go Oxford Circuit have this 
county within the compass of their commission. 

MANUFACTURES. 
CAPS. 

These were the most ancient, general, warm, and profitable 
coverings of men s heads in this Island. It is worth our pains 
to observe the tenderness of our kings to preserve the trade of 
cap-making, and what long and strong struggling our state had 
to keep up the using thereof, so many thousands of people be 
ing maintained thereby in the land,f especially before the in 
vention of Fulling-mills, all caps before that time being wrought, 
beaten, and thickened by the hands and feet of men, till those 
mills, as they eased many of their labour, ousted more of their 
livelihood. Thus ingenious inventions conducing to the com 
pendious making of commodities, though profitable to private 
persons, may not always be gainful to the public, to which what 
employs most is most advantageous ; as capping anciently set 
fifteen distinct callings on work, as they are reckoned up in the 
statute :J 

1. Carders; 2. Spinners; 3. Knitters; 4. Parters of Wool; 
5. Forcers; 6. Thickers; 7- Dressers; -8. Walkers; 9. Dyers; 
10. Battelers; 11. Shearers; 12. Pressers ; 13. Edgers ; 14, 
Liners; 15. Band-makers ; and other exercises. 

* In Dr. Fuller s time, Monmoutlisture was considered a Welch county. It is 
now an English one ED. 

f Eight thousand in London, Stat. 13 Elizabeth, cap. 19 ; and probably twice as 
many in the land beside. 

J 13 Elizabeth, cap, 19. 



432 WORTHIES OP MONMOUTHSHIRE. 

No wonder then if so many statutes were enacted in Parlia 
ments, to encourage this handicraft, as by the ensuing catalogue 
will appear. 

1. Anno 22 Edward IV. cap. 5. "That none thicken any 
cap or bonnet in any fulling-mill, upon pain to forfeit forty shil 
lings." 

2. Anno 3 Henry VIII. cap. 15. "That no caps or hats 
ready wrought should be brought from beyond the seas, upon 
the forfeiture of forty shillings." Yet because, notwithstanding 
this statute, some still presumed to import foreign wares, it was 
enacted, 

3. Anno 21 Henry VIII. cap 9. "That such outlandish hats 
should be sold at such low prices as are specified in the sta 
tute ;" merely to deter the merchant from importing them, be 
cause such their cheapness that they would turn to no account. 

4. Anno 7 Edward VI. cap. 8. Fulling-mills beginning now 
to take footing in England, the statute made 22 Edward IV. 
was revived, to stand and remain in full force, strength, and ef 
fect. 

5. Anno 8 Elizabeth, cap. 11. Fulling-mills still finding 
many to favour them, the pains and profit of cap-making was 
equally divided betwixt the mills and the cap-makers ; it being 
enacted, " That no cap should be thickened or fulled in any 
mill, until the same had first been well scoured and closed 
upon the bank, and half footed at least upon the foot-stock." 

6. Lastly, to keep up the usage of caps, it was enacted, the 13 
Eliz. cap. 19, "That they should be worn by all persons (some 
of worship and quality excepted) on sabbath and holidays, 
on the pain of forfeiting ten groats for omission thereof. 

But it seems nothing but hats would fit the heads (or humour 
rather) of the English, as fancied by them fitter to fence their 
fair faces from the injury of wind and weather; so that, in the 
39th of queen Elizabeth, this statute was repealed. Yea, the 
cap, accounted by the Romans an emblem of liberty, is es 
teemed by the English (except falconers and hunters) a badge 
of servitude, though very useful in themselves, and the ensign 
of constancy, because- not discomposed, but retaining their 
fashion, in what form soever they be crowded. 

The best caps were formerly made at Morimouth, where the 
Cappers chapel doth still remain, being better carved and gilded 
thn any other part of the church. But, on the occasion of a 
great plague happening in this town, the trade was some years 
since removed hence to Beaudly in Worcestershire, yet so that 
they are called Monmouth caps unto this day. Thus this town 
retains, though not the profit, the credit of capping ; and see 
ing the child still keeps the mother s name, there is some hope 
in due time she may return unto her. 

All I will add is this : if at this day the phrase of "weaving a 
Monrnouth cap" be taken in a bad acception, I hope the inha- 



PRINCES SAINTS. 



433 



bitants of that town will endeavour to disprove the occasion 

thereof. 

PRINCES. 

HENRY of MONMOUTH,* so called from that well-known 
town wherein he was born. He was son to king Henry the 
Fourth (by Mary, one of the daughters and heirs of Humfrey 
de Bohun earl of Hereford, and) whom he succeeded on the 
throne (being the fifth of that name) ; and began his reign 
March 20, anno 1413. 

He cannot be excused from extravagancies in his youth, 
seeing the king his father expelled him his council (substituting 
his younger brother the duke of -Clarence president in his stead) 
for the same. Yet, as those bodies prove most healthful, 
which break out in their youth, so was his soul the sounder for 
venting itself in its younger days ; for no sooner was his 
father dead, but he reclaimed himself, and became a glory 
to his country, and a constant terror to his enemies. Yea, 
he banished all his idle companions from court, allowing them a 
competency for their subsistence. 

When the lord chief justice (who had secured him when 
prince for striking him for the commitment of some of his 
lewd companions) begged his pardon for the same, he not only 
forgave him, but rewarded his justice, for distributing it without 
fear or partiality. 

In his reign a supplication was preferred, that the tem 
poral lands given to pious uses, but abusively spent, might 
have been seized to the king. This was wisely awarded 
by Chichley archbishop of Canterbury, by putting the king on 
the design of recovering France. Yea, this king, by his valour, 
reduced Charles the Sixth king of France to such a condition, 
that he in a manner resigned his kingdom into his hand. 

And here the Frenchmen found him as good (or rather worse) 
as his promise, which he made to the dauphin (who sent him a 
barrel of Paris tennis-balls), sending such English balls, that 
they proved to their great loss. 

He died at Bois St. Vincent in France, the last day of Au 
gust, anno 1422 ; and was brought over with great solemnity > 
and interred in Westminster Abbey. 

SAINTS. 

Saint AMPHIBALUS, a citizen of Carleon. See the Saints in 
HEREFORDSHIRE. 

Saint AARON was a wealthy citizen of Carleon in this county, 
who, for the testimony of the Christian faith, was martyred 
under the tyrant emperor Dioclesian. By the way, we may ob- 

* In the original edition, the name of Henry of Monmouth was here inadvert 
ently omitted by Dr. Fuller, and inserted under RADNORSHIRE ; but it is now 
given in its proper place En. 

VOL. II. 2F 



434 WORTHIES OP MONMOUTHSHIRE. 

serve the names of the three first British martyrs as to their 
language : 

1 Alban, of Latin original: 2. Amphibalus, of Greek ori 
ginal: 3. Aaron, of Hebrew original, 

It seems that the Christian Britons at the font quitted their 
native names as barbarous, and imposed on their children those 
of the learned languages. This Aaron was martyred, anno Do 
mini 303. 

Saint JULIUS. It is pity to part so fast friends, both being 
citizens of Carleon. Yea, fi they were lovely in their lives, and 
in their deaths they were not divided," both suffering martyr 
dom together ; and therefore, like Philip and Jacob, one day is 
assigned to their memories in the Calendar. 

Nor must I forget how Carleon, the place of their abode, 
though now a small town, was once a great city, stretching so 
far on both sides of the river, that Saint Julian s (a house of 
late of Sir William Herbert s) was sometime within the city, 
though now about a mile south-west thereof, being a church de 
dicated anciently to the memory of this Saint Julius.* 

CARDINALS. 

GEFFERY of MONMOUTII is by somef very firmly avouched 
to have been created a Cardinal ; but by what Pope, and with 
what title, uncertain ; but my worthy author justly suspecteth 
the truth hereof; alleging that popes in that age advanced few 
foreigners at so great a distance to that title, except their merits 
to the see of Rome (which appears not to this Jeffery) were 
very great. J Let me add, that it is improbable so much ho 
nour should be done unto him whilst living, who was so so 
lemnly disgraced after his death ; whose books (extant in his 
life) were afterwards by the court of Rome publicly prohibited. 
See him, therefore, in this shire, under the title of WRITERS. 

JOHN of MoNMOUTH, so called from the place of his nativity, 
D. D. and canon of Lincoln, was chosen, anno 1296, bishop of 
Llandaff, the manner whereof was remarkable ; for, when Robert 
Kilwarby complained to Pope Celestine, how that cathedral had 
been for seven years without a bishop (caused either by the 
troublesomness of those times, or the exility of revenue there 
of,) his Holiness remitted his election wholly to the discretion of 
this archbishop, to confer that vacant see on whomsoever he 
pleased. The archbishop, knowing all eyes intent on his inte 
grity herein, resolved on a Welchman by his birth (as most 
proper for and acceptable in the place), and on one of merit for 
the function. 

Both qualifications met in this John of Monmouth, as British 

* Camden s Britannia, in Monmouthshire. f Cicaonias. 

J Bishop Godwin, in the Catalogue of the Bishops of St. Asaph. 



CARDINALS -SOLDIERS. 485 

by his birth and alliance, and charactered to be " doctus et pins 
theologus.* One of his successors in that bishopric acknow- 
ledgeth that he was "multimodis sedi suse benefactor;" and 
more particularly, that he procured the rectory of Newland, in 
the Forest of Dean, to be appropriated thereunto.f But one 
bishop [Anthony Kitchin by name] more unlanded Llandaff in 
one, than all his predecessors endowed it in four hundred years. 
This John dying April 8, 1323, was buried in Saint Mary s 
chapel, whose epitaph in French is hardly legible at this day on 
his marble monument. 

WALTER CANTILUPE was son to William [the elder] lord 
Cantilupe, whose prime residence was at Abergavenny in this 
county. One of high birth, higher preferment (made, by king 
Henry the Third, bishop of Worcester), and highest spirit. In 
his time the Pope s legate came into England, and complained 
of many clergymen keeping their livings against the canons, in 
tending either to force such irregular incumbents into avoidance 
(so to make room for the Pope s favourites) or else to com 
pound for their continuance at his arbitrary price. But our 
Walter would not yield to such extortion. Indeed he was one 
of a keen nature ; and his two-edged spirit did cut on both 
sides, against 

The Pope. Telling Rusland, his legate, coming hither 1255, 
that he would prefer to be hanged on the gallows, rather than 
ever consent to such expilation of the church. J 

The King. Siding with the barons, he encouraged them in 
their civil wars, promising heaven for their reward, though 
this doctrine cost him an excommunication from the Pope. 

Lying on his death-bed, he was touched with true remorse 
for his disloyalty, and, upon his desire, obtained absolution. 
He died February the fifth, 1267, whom I behold as uncle unto 
Thomas Cantilupe, the sainted bishop of Hereford. 

SOLDIERS. 

RICHARD de CLARE was born (as from all concentred pro 
babilities may be conjectured) at Strigule castle in this county, 
and had the title of earl of Strigule and Pembroke. He was 
otherwise surnamed Strong-bow, from drawing so strong a bow, 
and had brachia projectissima, saith my author ;[| though I can 
hardly believe that reacher, which another writeth of him, that 
" with the palms of his hands he could touch his knees, though 
he stood upright."^[ More appliable to him is the expression 

* Harpsfield, Histor. Eccl. Ang. p. 490. 

Godwiil, in his Catalogue of Bishops in LlandafF. 

: : Antiq. Brit, anno prsedicto. Godwin, in the Bishops of Worcester. 

| Camden s Britannia, in this County. 
il Mills, in his Catalogue of Honour, p. 1082. 

2 F 2 



436 WORTHIES OF MONMOUTHSHIRE. 

of Tully, " Nihil egit levi brachio/ * being a person of effectual 
performance. 

It happened that Mac Murugh lord of Leinster, in the year 
of our Lord 1167^ being expelled his territory for several tyran 
nies, by the lords of Meath and Connaught, repaired to our king 
Henry the Second, and invited him to invade Ireland. But 
that politic king, fearing, if failing in success, to forfeit the re 
putation of his discretion, would not engage in the design ; but 
permitted such subjects of his who had a mind " militare pro- 
priis stipendiis," to adventure themselves therein. 

Amongst these Richard Strongbow was the principal, going 
over into Ireland with twelve hundred men, too great for an 
earl s train, yet too little for a general s army, to make a na 
tional invasion ; yet so great his success, that in a short time he 
possessed himself of the ports of Leinster and Munster, with 
large lands belonging thereunto; insomuch that king Henry 
grew jealous of his greatness, remanded him home, and com 
manded him to surrender his acquests into his hands ; which 
done, he received them again by re-grant from the king, save 
that Henry reserved the city of Dublin for himself. 

This Strongbow is he who is commonly called " Domitor Hi- 
bernice," "the Tamer of Ireland;" though the natives thereof 
then, and many hundred years after, paid rather verbal submis 
sion, than real obedience, to our English kings. Yea, some of 
their great lords had both the power and title of kings in their 
respective territories ; witness the preface in the commission 
whereby king Henry the Second made William Fitz Adelme 
his lieutenant of Ireland ; " Archiepiscopis, Episcopis, Re- 
gibus, Comitibus, Baronibus, et omnibus fidelibus suis in 
Hibernia, salutem ;" where kings are postposed to bishops, 
which speaketh them royolets by their own ambition, and 
by no solemn inauguration. This Earl Richard died at Dublin 
1177 5 and lieth buried in Trinity Church therein. 

Sir ROGER WILLIAMS, born of an ancient family at Penross 
in this county, was first a soldier of fortune under Duke D Alva, 
and afterwards successively served queen Elizabeth ; having no 
fault, save somewhat over-free and forward to fight. 

When a Spanish captain challenged Sir John Norris to fight 
a single combat (which was beneath him to accept, because a 
general,) this Roger undertook the Don. And after they had 
fought some time (both armies beholding them) without any 
hurt, they pledged each other a deep draught of wine, and 
so friendly departed.f 

Another time, at midnight, he assaulted the camp of the 
prince of Parma, nigh Venice, slew some of the enemy, 

* Epist. ad Atticum, lib. iv. f Camden s Elizabeth, in anno 1581. 



SOLDIERS WRITERS 



437 



and pierced to the tent of the general, as highly blamed 
by some for rashness, as commended by others for his valour. 
He bravely defended Slufe, whilst any hope of help.* 

WILLIAM HERBERT, earl of Pembroke, with Sir Richard 
Herbert his brother, were both undoubtedly born in this 
county ; but whether or no at Ragland castle, is uncertain. 
Both valiant men, and as fast friends to king Edward the 
Fourth, as professed foes to Richard Nevil earl of Warwick. 
They gave the last and clearest evidence hereof in the battle of 
Banbury, where we find it reported, that these two leading the 
army of the Welch, with their pole-axes, twice made way 
through the battle of the northern-men (which sided with king 
Henry the Sixth) without any mortal wound. 

There passeth a tradition in the noble family of the Herberts 
of Cherbury, that this Sir Richard their ancestor slew that day 
one hundred and forty men with his own hands ; which, if done 
in charging, some censure as an act of impossibility ; if after a 
rout in an execution, as a deed of cruelty. But others defend 
both truth and courage therein, as done in passing and 
repassing through the army. Indeed guns were, and were not, 
in fashion in that age, used sometimes in sieges, but never in 
field service ; and next the gun, the pole-axe was the mortal 
weapon, especially in such a dead hand as this knight had, with 
which, " Quot icti, tot occisi," He is reported also to be of a 
giant s stature, the peg being extant in Montgomery castle, 
whereon he used to hang his hat at dinner, which no man of an 
ordinary height can reach with his hand at this day. 

However, both these brave brethren, circumvented with the 
subtlety of their foes (odds at any time may be bet on the side 
of treachery against valour) were brought to Banbury, be 
headed, and buried, the earl at Tintern, and Sir Richard 
at Abergavenny, in this county. 

WRITERS, 

JEFFREY of MONMOUTH was born in, and named from, Mon- 
mouth. He was also called ap Arthur, from his father (as I 
suppose) ; though others say, because he wrote s6 much of king 
Arthur t but, by the same proportion, Homer may be termed 
Achillides, and Virgil the son of ./Eneas. Yea, this Jeffrey, by 
an ancienter title, might be surnamed ap Bruit, whose story he 
asserteth. He translated and compiled the various British 
authors into one volume. 

I am not so much moved at William Newbrough calling this 
his book ridicula figmenta, as that Giraldus Cambrensis, his 
countryman, and (as I may say) con-sub-temporary., should 
term it fabulosam historian. Indeed he hath many things from 
the British bards, which, though improbable, are not ipso facto 

* Camden s Elizabeth, in anno 1586. 

f Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. ii. num. 86. 



438 WORTHIES OF MONMOUTHSHIRE. 

untrue. We know Herodotus, nicknamed by some Pater Fa- 
bularum, is by others acknowledged to be Pater Historiarum. 

The truth is, that both Novelants and Antiquaries must be 
content with many falsehoods ; the one taking reports at the first 
rebound, before come to ; the other raking them out of the 
dust, when past their perfection. 

Others object, that he is too hyperbolical in praising his own 
country ; a catching disease, seeing Livy mounts Italy to 
the skies, and all other authors respectively. And why should 
that be mortal in our Monmouth, what is but venial in others ? 
And if he be guilty in mistiming of actions, he is not the only 
historian without company in that particular. 

However, on the occasion of the premises, his book is prohi 
bited by His Holiness, whilst the lying legend is permitted to be 
read without control. Thus Rome loves " questuosa, non inu- 
tilia figmenta," (falshoods whereby she may gain.) Some con 
ceive it to be his greatest fault, that he so praiseth the ancient 
church in Britain, making it independent from the see of Rome, 
before Austin the monk came hither. One maketh him a 
cardinal, which is improbable ; whilst it is more certain that he 
was bishop of St. Asaph, and flemished anno 1152. 

THOMAS of MONMOUTH was probably born, certainly bred 
and brought up, in the chief town of this county.* Nor doth 
it move me to the contrary, because Pits calls him an English 
man, Monmouth in that age being a frontier garrison, peopled 
with English inhabitants. 

It happened at this time many Jews lived in Norwich, where 
their habitation was called Abraham s-hall, though therein not 
practising the piety of that worthy patriarch. f He, out of con 
formity to God s command, sacrificed his one and only son ; 
they, contrary to His will in his word, crucified the child 
of another, William by name. His sepulchre J was afterwards 
famed for many miracles, whereof this Thomas wrote an history 
and dedicated it to William de Turbes, bishop of Norwich, 
though he lived above six score miles from the place of those 
strange performances; but probably the farther the better; 
"major e longinquo reverentia;" and miracles are safest 
reported, and soonest believed, at some competent distance. 
He flourished anno 1160, under king Henry the Second. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

[AMP.] HENRY PLANTAGENET, first duke of Lancaster, 
was born in Monmouth castle, the chief seat of his barony. 
He is commonly surnamed de torto co//o, or the wry-neck, and 
by others the good duke of Lancaster, || by which name we en- 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. ii. num. 94 . f Idem, ibidem. 

The Shrine of this reputed Saint was in Lincoln Cathedral ED. 

Speed s Chronicle, in the foundation of Bcne t College. 
II Mills, C atalo gue of Honour, in the Dukes of Lancaster. 



BENEFACTORS. 439 

title him, it being fitter to call men from what was to be 
praised, than what to be pitied in them ; not from their natural 
defects, but moral perfections. His bounty commends him to 
our mention in this place, being head of the guild of Cor- 
pus-Christi in Cambridge, and the first founder of a college so 
called in that university. Indeed the land was but little he 
conferred thereon, but great the countenance of so eminent a 
person in procuring and settling their mortmain. He died in 
the year of our Lord 1361 ; and was buried in the collegiate 
church at Leicester, which he founded. Blanch, .his only- 
daughter \vhich had issue, was married to John of Gaunt, duke 
of Lancaster. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

WILLIAM JOHNES was a native of the town of Monmouth ; 
a person whose estate w r as very considerable in several respects ; 
viz. in 

1. His emptiness; being forced out of Monmouth, for not 
being able to pay ten groats : as the late recorder of that cor 
poration* hath informed me. How had he been undone, if he 
had not been undone ! 

2. His filing; flying to London, he became first a porter, 
and then (his brains being better than his back) a factor ; and 
going over to Hamburgh, by his industry and ingenuity 
made such a vent for Welch cottons, that w r hat he found drugs 
at home, he left dainties beyond the sea. 

3. His re-funding, founding a fair school-house in the place 
of his nativity, allowing fifty pounds yearly for the master, 
thirty for the usher, with one hundred marks salary to a 
lecturer; besides a stately alms-house for twenty poor folk, 
each of them having two rooms and a garden, with half a crown 
a week, besides other conveniences. 

All which his benefactions, and many more,f he by will sub 
mitted to the oversight of the honourable company of Haber 
dashers in London, who at this day right worthily discharge 
their trust herein. He died anno Domini 16 .. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

WILLIAM EVANS was born in this county, and may justly be 
accounted the giant of our age for his stature, being full 
two yards and a half in height : he was porter to king Charles 
the First, succeeding Walter Persons in his place, and exceed 
ing him two inches in height, but far beneath him in an equal 
proportion of body ; for he was not only what the Latins call 
compernis, knocking his knees together, and going out squalling 
with his feet, but also halted a little; yet made he a shift 
to dance in an antimask at court, where he drew little Jeffrey 

* Henry Milbourne, Esq. 

t Reckoned up in Stow s Survey of London, p. 103. 



440 



WORTHIES OP MONMOUTHSHIRE. 



the dwarf out of his pocket, first to the wonder, then to the 
laughter, of the beholders. He died anno Domini 163. . 

SHERIFFS. 

This was made a shire by act of parliament in the 27th year 
of king Henry the Eighth, but it seems not solemnly settled 
till five years after. 



HEN. VIII. 



Place. 



Anno Name and Arms. 

32 Car. Herbert, arm. 

Per pale, Az. and G. three lions rampant Arg. 

33 Walt. Herbert, arm. . ut prius. 

34 Walt, ap Robert, arm. 

35 Hen. Lewis, arm. 

36 Re. ap Howel, arm. 

G. a lion rampant guardant Arg. 

37 Joh. Hen. Lewis, arm. 

38 Anth. Welsh, arm. 

Az. six mullets, three, two, one, O. 

EDW. VI. 

1 Th. ap Morgan, arm . . Lanterra*. 

O. a griffin segreant S. 

2 Car. Herbert, mil. . . ut prius. 

3 Will. Morgan,, mil. . . ut prius. 

4 Will. Herbert, arm. . ut prius. 

5 Walt. Herbert, arm. , ut prius. 

6 Will. Herbert, arm. . ut prius. 

MAR. REG. 

1 Anth. Welsh, arm. . . ut prius. 

2 Walt, ap Robert. 

3 Will. Joh. Thomas. 

4 Roul. Morgan, arm. . ut prius, 

5 Hen. Lewis, arm. 

6 Tho. Morgan, mil. . . ut prius. 

ELIZ. REG. 

1 Tho. Herbert, arm. . . ut prius. 

2 Geo. James, arm. 

3 Rog. Williams. 

4 Will. Herbert . . . Colebrook. 

5 Will. Herbert. . . . J. Julian. 

6 Will. Morgan, arm. . . Tredegar. 

Arms, ut prius. 

7 Joh. Henry Kemis. 

Vert, on a chevron O. three pheons S. 



SHERIFFS. 



441 



Anno 



Name and Arms. 



8 Wil. Joh. ap Roger . ut prius. 

9 Will. Morgan, arm. 

10 Christ. Welsh, arm. . ut prius. 

11 Row. Morgan, arm. . . ut prius. 

12 Will. Herbert . . . ut prius. 

13 Tho. Herbert .... ut prius. 

14 Will. Morgan, arm. . . ut prius, 

15 Milo Morgan .... ut prius. 

16 Row. Kemis, arm. . . ut prius. 

17 Christ. Welsh, arm. . ut prius. 

18 Rich. Morgan .... ut prius. 

19 Wil. Joh. ap Roger. 

Per pale, Az. and G. three lions rampant Arg. 

20 Will. Lewes, arm. 

21 Will. Herbert, mil. . . ut prius. 

22 Tho. Morgan, arm. . . ut pnn-s. 

23 Edw. Morgan, arm. . ut prius. 

24 Edw. Morgan, arm. . . ut prius. 

25 Mat. Herbert, arm. . . ut prius. 

26 Will. Lewes, arm. . . ut prius. 

27 Rich. Morgan, arm. . . ut prius. 

28 Jo. Jones, arm. 

S. a stag standing at gaze Arg. attired and unguled O. 

29 Hen. Morgan . . . ut prius. 

30 Hen. Herbert, arm. . . ut prius. 

31 Nich. Herbert, arm. . ut prius. 

32 Edw. Lewis, arm. . . ut prius. 

33 Wai. Vaughan, arm. 

34 Row. Morgan, arm, . . ut prius. 

35 Walt. Jones, arm. . . ut prius. 

36 Math. Herbert, arm. . ut prius. 

37 Mat. Prichard, arm. 

S. a lion rampant Arg. 

38 Andr. Morgan, arm. . ut prius. 

39 Hen. Herbert, arm. . . ut prius. 
Will. Morgan, arm. . . ut prius. 

40 Hen. Billingsley. 

41 Rich. Kemis, arm. . . ut prius. 

42 Edw. Kemis, arm. . . ut prius. 

43 Edw. Morgan, arm. . . ut prius. 

44 Hen. Morgan, arm. . . ut prius. 

45 Joh. Gainsford, arm. 

JACOB. 

1 Joh. Gainsford, arm. 

2 Row. Williams, arm. 

3 Valen. Prichard, arm. 

4 Will. Price, arm. 



442 WORTHIES OP MONMOUTHSHIRE. 

Anno Name and Arms. 

5 Walt. Mountague. 

Arg. three fusils in fess G. a border S. 

6 Car. Jones, arm. . . . ut prius. 

7 Hen. Lewis, arm. 

8 Will. Ramlyns, arm. 

9 Will. Morgan, mil. . . ut prius. 

10 Rog. Batlierne, arm. 

11 Egid. Morgan, arm . . ut prius : 

12 Will. Jones, arm. . . ut prius. 

13 Tho. Vanne, arm. 

14 Tho. Morgan, arm. . . ut prius. 

15 Geo. Milbourn, arm. 

G. a chevron betwixt three escalops Arg. 

16 Will. Hughes, arm. 

17 Tho. Cocks, arm. 

18 Walt. Aldey, arm. 

19 Rob. Jones, arm. . . ut prius. 

20 Will. Walter, arm. 

21 David Lewis, arm. 

22 Ed. Morgan, arm. . . ut prius. 

CARO. I. 

1 Car. Somerset, arm. 

2 Car. Williams, mil. 

3 Will. Keymis, arm. . . ut prius. 

4 Will. Thomas, arm. 

5 Joh. Walter, arm. 

6 Will. Baker, arm. 

7 Nich. Keymeis, arm. . ut prius. 

8 Nich. Arnold, arm. 

9 Lodo. Vanne, arm. 

10 Geo. Milborne, arm. . ut prius. 

11 Hen. Probert, arm. 

12 Tho. Morgan, arm. . . ut prius. 

13 Will. Herbert, arm. . . ut prius. 

14 Nich. Moor, arm. 

THE FAREWELL. 

I understand that, in January 1607, part of this county which 
they call The Moor, sustained a great loss, by the breaking-in 
of the Severn sea, caused by a violent south-west wind, continu 
ing for three days together :* I heartily desire the inhabitants 
thereof may for the future be secured from all such dangerous 
inundations (water being a good servant, but bad master) by His 
providence, who bindeth the sea in a girdle of sands, and saith 
to the waves thereof, Thus far shall ye go, and no further.! 

* Camden s Britannia, in this County. f Job xxxviii. 2. 



WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 443 



WORTHIES OF MONMOUTHSHIRE WHO HAVE FLOURISHED 
SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER, 

Rev. Dr. John EVANS, Baptist divine ; author of Sketch of 

all Denominations of the Christian World, &c. ; born at Usk 
^ 1767; died 1827. 
Charles GODWIN, antiquary, friend of Hutchins the historian 

of Dorset 5 born at Chepstow 1698. 
William HOPKINS, divine, born at Monmouth 1706. 
Edmund JONES, historian of his native village ; born at Aberyst- 

with. 
Thomas LLYWELLYN, Baptist, editor of editions of the Welsh 

Bible; died 1796. 
Sir Charles Hanbury WILLIAMS, M.P. poet, and diplomatist ; 

born at Pontypool 1709; died 1759. 



** This county has not been without its historians since the time of Fuller. In 
1796, Mr. David Williams produced the History of Monmouthshire ; and in 1801, 
the Rev. Wm. Coxe brought out his Historical Tour. Mr. Cha. Heath has also 
published an historical and descriptive Account of the Town of Monmouth (1804), 
besides descriptions of Raglan Castle, Tintern Abbey, Chepstow, &c. In 1831, 
the Rev. T. D. Fosbroke also produced an account of Raglan Castle. E. 



NORFOLK. 



NORFOLK hath the "German Ocean on the north and east 
thereof ; Suffolk, severed by the river Waveny, on the south side ; 
Cambridgeshire, parted by the river Ouse, and a small part of 
Lincolnshire, on the west. It extendeth full fifty miles from east 
to west ; but from north to south stretcheth not above thirty 
miles. 

All England may be carved out of Norfolk, represented 
therein, not only to the kind but degree thereof. Here are 
fens and heaths, and light and deep, and sand and clay-ground, 
and meadows and pasture, and arable and woody, and (generally) 
woodless land ; so grateful is this shire with the variety thereof. 
Thus, as in many men, though perchance this or that part may 
justly be cavilled at, yet all put together complete a proper 
person : so Norfolk, collectively taken, hath a sufficient result 
of pleasure and profit ; that being supplied in one part which is 
defective in another. 

This county hath the most churches of any in England (six 
hundred and sixty) ; and, though the poorest livings, yet (by 
some occult quality of their good husbandry, and God s blessing 
thereon) the richest clergymen. Nor can there be given a 
greater demonstration of the wealth and populousness of this 
county, than that in the late act for an assessment upon Eng 
land, at the rate of sixty thousand pounds by the month, for 
three months, Norfolk, with the city of Norwich, is rated at 
three thousand two hundred sixty-six pounds, thirteen shillings, 
and fourpence, the highest proportion of any shire in England. 
And, though Norfolk hath little cause to please and less to pride 
itself in so dear purchased pre-eminence, yet it cannot but ac 
count it a credit to see itself not undervalued. 

NATURAL COMMODITIES. 

It shareth plentifully in all English commodities, and abound- 
eth with the best and most. 

RABBITS. 

These are an army of natural pioneers, whence men have 
learned " cuniculos agere," the art of undermining. They thrive 



NATURAL COMMODITIES. 445 

best on barren ground, and grow fattest in the hardest frosts. 
Their flesh is fine and wholesome. If Scottish men tax our 
language as improper, and smile at our wing of a rabbit, let us 
laugh at their shoulder of a capon. 

Their skins were formerly much used, when furs were in fashion; 
till of late our citizens, of Romans are turned Grecians, have 
laid down their grave gowns, and taken up their light cloaks ; 
men generally disliking all habits, though emblems of honour, if 
also badges of age. 

Their rich or silver-hair-skins, formerly so dear, are now 
levelled in prices with other colours ; yea, are lower than black in 
estimation, because their wool is most used in making of hats, 
commonly (for the more credit) called half-beavers, though many 
of them hardly amount to the proportion of semi-demi- castors. 

HERRINGS. 

Great store and very good of these are caught nigh Yarmouth, 
where once every year, on the feast of Saint Michael, is a fair 
held for the sale of fish ; and such the plenty of herrings there 
constantly vended, that incredible the sum which is raised 
thereby. Indeed, the fishing for herrings is a most gainful 
trade ; fish, though contemptible in itself, considerable in its 
company, swimming in shoals, that what the whale hath in big 
ness the herring hath in number. (It may well mind such who 
excel in strength and valour, not to boast or be proud thereof, 
seeing the greatest courage may be soon pressed to death under 
unequal number.) Yea, red-herrings, in England mostly eaten 
for sauce to quicken the appetite, serve in Holland and elsewhere 
for food to satisfy hunger. 

I will conclude the natural commodities of this county, with 
this memorable passage, which I have read in a modern author.* 

" The lord F. W. assured me of a gentleman in Norfolk, that 
made above 10,000. sterling of a piece of ground not forty 
yards square ; and yet there was neither mineral nor metal in 
it. He after told me, it was only a sort of fine clay, for the 
making a choice sort of earthenware; which some that knew it, 
seeing him dig up, discovered the value of it, and, sending it 
into Holland, received so much money for it." 

My belief tireth in coming up to the top of this story, sus 
pecting the addition of a cipher. But, if it were so, how much 
would it have enriched us, if those mock-China dishes had been 
made in England ! 

MANUFACTURES. 
WORSTEDS. 

These first took their name from Worsteadf? a village in this 

* Hartlib s Legacy, p. 97. f Camden s Britannia, in this county. 



446 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

county. Originally it is nothing but woollen-thread spun very 
fine, and for the more strength twisted together. But oh ! it 
surpasseth my skill to name the several stuffs (being worsted 
disguised with weaving and colouring) made thereof. 

It argueth the usefulness and public profit of this commodity 
(which first found a general repute in England toward the end of 
the reign of king Henry the Sixth) that there are no fewer than 
fourteen statutes now in force in the well-ordering thereof to 
merchantable proof; and appointing which of them may, which 
may not, be transported. Not to speak of four wardens of 
worsted weavers to be chosen yearly within the city of Norwich, 
and other four out of the county of Northfolk, with their solemn 
oath, office, and authority.* 

As for worsted stockings, they were first made in England, 
anno 1564, by William Rider,t an ingenious apprentice living 
against Saint Magnus church, at the foot of London bridge. 
This William chancing to see a pair of knit worsted stockings in 
the lodging of an Italian merchant, who had brought them from 
Mantua, borrowed them ; and, making the like by that pattern, 
presented them to William earl of Pembroke, who first wore 
them in England. 

PROVERBS. 

" Norfolk dumplings."] 

This cannot be verified of any dwarfish or diminutive stature 
of people in this county, being as tall of their bodies, and as tall 
of their arms too, I assure you, as any in England. But it re 
lates to the fare they commonly feed on, so generally called. I 
wish, much good may it do them, and that their bodies thereby 
may be enabled for all natural, civil, and spiritual performances. 
"Norfolk wiles."] 

Such the skill of the common people hereof in our common 
law, wherein they are so versed, " ut si nihil sit litium, lites 
tamen ex juris apicibus serere callent.J If I must go to law, I 
wish them rather of my counsel than my adversary s; for 
whereas " pedibus ambulando" is accounted but a vexatious suit 
in other counties, here (where men are said to study law as follow 
ing the plough-tail) some would persuade us, that they will enter 
an action for their neighbour s horse but looking over their hedge. 
Now, although we listen to this but as a jeer, yet give me leave 
to observe two parts in wiles ; ivittiness, which all must com 
mend ; ivickedness, which all must condemn. 

Sure I am, that in Scripture a wile always " male audit," is 
taken in an evil sense, as wherein the simplicity of the dove is 
stung to death by the subtilty of the serpent. But no more 

? Stat. 7 Edward IV. c. 3. f Stow s Chronicles, p. 869. 

j Camden s Britannia, in this County. 

Numbers xxv. 18. Ephesiansvi.il. Joshua ix. 4. 



PROVERBS PRINCES PRELATES. 447 

hereof, lest Norfolk men commence a suit against me, though I 
verily believe many therein are of as peaceable dispositions as 
any in other places. 

" A Yarmouth Capon."] 

That is, a red-herring. No news for creatures to be thus 
disguised under other names ; seeing critics by a Libyan bear, 
l( sub pelle Libystidis ursse," understand a lion, no bears being 
found in the land of Libya. And I believe few capons (save 
what have more fins than feathers) are bred in Yarmouth. But, 
to countenance this expression, I understand that the Italian 
friar (when disposed to eat flesh on Fridays) calls a capon 
" piscem e corte," (a fish out of the coop.) 

" He is arrested by the Bailie of Marshland."] 

The air of Marshland in this county is none of the whole- 
somest, being surrounded with the sea and fens on all sides. 
Hence it is that strangers coming hither are clapt on the back 
with an ague, which sometimes lasts them longer than a stuff 
suit. The best is, when such prisoners have paid the bailiff s 
fees and garnish, and with time and patience have weathered out 
the brunt of that disease, they become habited to the air of the 
country, and arrive in health at a very great age. 

PRINCES. 

I meet with no prince since the Conquest taking his first 
breath in this county ; probably, because so remote from the 
principal place of royal residence. 

PRELATES. 

GILBERT BERKELEY was born in this county;* but de 
scended from the ancient barons of that name, as appeareth by 
his arms. He was consecrated bishop of Bath and Wells in the 
first of queen Elizabeth, and sate therein twenty-two years. He 
died of a lethargy, being eighty years of age, 1581 ; and is buried 
on the north-side of the communion-table of his own cathedral. 

JOHN AYLMER, brother to Sir Robert Aylmer, knight, was 
born, at Aylmer-hall, in the parish of Tilseley, in this county 
as his nearest surviving relations have informed me, from whom 
I have received the following information. 

When he was but a child, going toward school, Henry Gray, 
duke of Suffolk, having some discourse with, took so much liking 
unto him, that, after he had been bred some years in the 
university of Cambridge, he made him his chaplain, and com 
mitted his daughter the lady Jane Gray to his tuition. 

In the reign of queen Mary he fled over beyond sea, and was 
little less than miraculously saved from the searchers of the ship 

* Godwin, in his Catalogue of the Bishops of Norwich. 



448 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

by the ingenuity of a merchant, who put him into a great wine- 
but, which had a partition in the middle; so that master 
Aylmer sate in the hind part, whilst the searchers drank of the 
wine which they saw drawn out of the head or other end 
thereof. 

Returning into England, he was made archdeacon of Lincoln, 
and at last bishop of London. He was happy in a meet yoke 
fellow, having a gracious matron to his wife, by whom he had 
many children, and one son, to which archbishop Whitgift was 
godfather, and named him Tob-el ; that is, The Lord is good, in 
memorial of a great deliverance bestowed on this child s mother ; 
for, when she was cast out of her coach in London (by a mastiff 
casually seizing upon the horses), she received no harm at all, 
though very near to the time of her travail. 

Bishop Aylmer was well learned in the languages, a ready 
disputant, and deep divine. He was eighteen years bishop of 
London; and, dying anno 1594, in the 73d year of his age, had 
this for part of his epitaph, which bishop Vaughan (sometime 
his chaplain, afterwards his successor) made upon him : 

Ter senos annas pr&sul, semel exul, et idem 
Bis jiugil in causti. religi .mis erat. 

" Eighteen years bishop, and once banished hence, 
And twice a champion in the truth s defence." 

I understand it thus : once a champion in suffering, when an 
exile for religion, and again in doing, when chosen one of the 
disputants at Westminster against the popish bishops primo 
Elizabeths ; except any expound it thus : once champion of 
the doctrine against papists, and afterwards against the disci 
pline of the non-conformists, none more stoutly opposing, or 
more foully belibelled, of them. 

God blessed him with a great estate, the main whereof he 
left unto Samuel Aylmer, his eldest son (high sheriff of Suffolk 
in the reign of king Charles). And amongst his youngest sons 
(all well provided for) Doctor Aylmer, rector of Haddam in 
Hertfordshire, was one of the most learned and reverend divines 
in his generation. 

JOHN TOWERS was born in this county, bred fellow of Queen s 
College in Cambridge, and became chaplain to William earl of 
Northampton, who bestowed on him the benefice of Castle- 
Ashby in Northamptonshire. He was preferred dean, and at 
last bishop, of Peterborough. 

He was a good actor when he was young, and a great sufferer 
when he was old; dying (about the year 1650) rich only in chil 
dren and patience. Nothing but sin is a shame in itself; and 
poverty as poverty (especially since our Saviour hath sanctified 
it by suffering it) is no disgrace. 



JUDGES WRITERS* 449 



CAPITAL JUDGES, AND WRITERS ON THE LAW. 

RALPH DE HENGHAM, so named from a fair market town 
in this county, was made lord chief justice of the King s Bench 
in Michaelmas Term in the second year of king Edward the 
First, when the king was newly returned from the Holy Land.* 
He sat sixteen years in that place (saving that one Winborne 
was, for a year or two, interposedf) : and, at the general purging 
and garbling of the judges, which happened in the 18th year of 
the aforesaid king : when all the judges (except two, John de 
Metingham and Elias de Bekingham) were cast out by the Par 
liament for their corruption, fined, banished, and imprisoned^ ; 
then this Ralph was amerced in seven thousand marks, for bri 
bery, and ejected out of his place. 

Some \vill say, Let him wither in silence : why do you men 
tion him amongst the Worthies of our nation ? I answer, Peni 
tence is the second part of innocence ; and we find this Ralph, 
after his fine paid, made chief justice of the Common Pleas, 
" sub resipiscendi fiducia/ (under the confidence generally con 
ceived of his amendment." 1 1 He died the next, being the 19th 
year of the reign of king Edward the First ; ^[ he lies buried in 
the church of Saint Paul, where he hath, or had, this epitaph : 

" Per versus patet hos Anglorum quod jacet liic flos 
Legum, qui tuta dictavit vera statuta. 
Ex Henghatn dictus Radulphus vir benedictus." 

One must charitably believe that he played a good after-game 
of integrity ; and, if enjoying longer life, he \vould have given 
a clearer testimony thereof. 

WILLIAMPASTON, Esq. son of Clement Paston, Esq. and Bea 
trix his wife (sister and heir to Geoffrey Sommerton, Esq.) was 
born at Paston, in this county. He was learned in the laws of 
this realm, and first was serjeant to king Henry the Sixth, and 
was after by him preferred second judge of the Common Pleas. 
I confess, having confined our catalogue to Capital Judges or 
Writers on the Law, he falls not under our method in the strict 
ness thereof. But I appeal to the reader himself, whether he 
would not have been highly offended with me, had I in silence 
passed over a person so deserving his observation. 

He was highly in favour with king Henry the Sixth, who 
allowed him, besides the ordinary salary assigned to other judges, 
one hundred and ten marks (reader, behold the standard of 
money in that age, and admire), with two gowns, to be taken 



* Sir Henry Spelman, in the Glossary, page 416. 

h Viz. anno Regis 10 et 13. J Tho. Walsingham , anno 1290. 

6 Sept. 1 Edward II. inter Pat. pars 1. memb. 21. 

|| This was in 29 Edw. I. 1301. He was again apointed otbat office in 1308 
by patent, dated 6th Sept. 1 Edw. II. ED. 

U He died in 1309, the second year of king Edward II. 
VOL. II. 2 G 



450 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

yearly out of the Exchequer, as by the ensuing letters patent 
will appear: 

" Henricus, Dei gratia, Rex Anglie et Francie, et Dominus 
Hibernie, Omnibus ad quos presentes litere pervenerint, Salu- 
tem : Sciatis quod de gratia nostra speciali, et ut dilectus et 
fidelis noster Willielmus Paston, unus justiciariorum nostrorum 
de Communi Banco statum suum decentius manutenere, et ex- 
pensas, quas ipsum in officio predicto facere oportebit, sustinere 
valeat; concessimus ei centum et decem marcas percipiendas 
singulis annis ad scaccarium nostrum, ad terminos Pasche et 
Sancti Michaelis per equales portiones ; et duas robas per annum 
percipiendas, unam videlicet cum pellura ad festum Natalis Do 
mini, "et aliam cum limrd ad festum Pentecostes, ultra feodum 
consuetum, quamdiu ipsum stare contigerit in officio supradicto. 
In cujus rei testimonium, has literas nostras fieri fecimus paten- 
tes. Teste meipso, apud Westminst. xv. die Octobris, anno 
nostri octavo." 

What pellura is I understand fur; but what limra is (if 
rightly written) I would willingly learn from another, though some 
are confident it is taffeta. 

I wonder the less at these noble favours conferred on the said 
William Paston, judge ; for I find him in grace with the two for 
mer kings, being made Serjeant by king Henry the Fourth, and 
of his council for the duchy of Lancaster ; and in the reign of 
king Henry the Fifth, he was in such esteem with Sir John 
Fastolfe, knight, that he appointed him one of his feoffees, whom 
he enabled, by a writing under his hand, to recover debts from 
the executors of king Henry the Fifth. 

This William Paston married Agnes, daughter and heir of Sir 
Edmund Berrey, by which marriage the Pastons * rightly quar 
ter at this day the several coats of Hetherset, Wachesham, Cra 
ven, Gerbredge, Hemgrave, and Kerdeston : and received both 
advancement in blood and accession of estate. This said Wil 
liam Paston died at London, August 14, 1444 ; and lies buried 
in Norwich ; so that his corps, by a peculiar exception, do 
straggle from the sepulture of their ancestors, who from Wolstan 
de Paston (who three years after the Conquest came into Eng 
land to William earl of Glandwill,t) were all interred at Paston. 
He left rich revenues to John Paston, esquire, his eldest son, 
who married Margaret daughter and heir of John Mautby ; and 
no mean estate to William his second surviving son, who married 
Anne daughter to Edmund duke of Somerset, 



* Of this family was Robert Paston, created Baron Paston and Viscount Yarmouth, 
in 1673, and Earl of Yarmouth in 1679 ; titles which, in 1682, descended to his son 
William ; at whose death, in December 1732, without surviving issue, they became 
extinct. ED. 

f Out of the book of William Botyner, fol. 20. sometime herald to Sir John 
Fastolfe, written in the reign of king Henry VI. and containing all the ancient gen 
try of this county. F. 



JUDGES WRITERS. 451 

Sir EDWARD COKE, Knight, son of Robert Coke, esquire, and 
of Winefred Knightly his wife, was born at Mileham, in this 
county ; bred, when ten years of age, at Norwich school, and 
thence removed to Trinity College in Cambridge. After four 
years continuance there, he was admitted into Clifford s Inn, 
London, and the year following entered a student of the munici 
pal law in the Inner Temple. Such his proficiency therein, that 
at the end of six years (exceeding early in that strict age) he 
was called to the bar, and soon after for three years chosen 
reader in Lyon s Inn. Here his learned lectures so spread forth 
his fame, that cro\vds of clients sued to him for his counsel, and 
his own suit was the sooner granted, when tendering his affec 
tions, in order to marriage, unto Briget daughter and coheir of 
John Paston, esquire. 

She was afterwards his incomparable wife ; whose portion, 
moderately estimated, viis et modis, amounted unto thirty thou 
sand pounds, her virtues not falling under valuation ; and she 
enriched her husband with ten children. 

Then began preferment to press upon him ; the city of Nor 
wich choosing him recorder, the county of Norfolk their knight 
to parliament, the queen her speaker therein, as also successively 
her solicitor and attorney. King James honoured him with 
knighthood, and made him chief justice, first of the Common 
Pleas, then of the King s Bench. Thus, beginning on a good 
bottom left him by his father, marrying a wife of extraordinary 
wealth, having at the first great and gainful practice, afterwards 
many and profitable offices, being provident to choose good 
pennyworths in purchases, leading a thrifty life, living to a 
great age, during flourishing and peaceable times (born as much 
after the persecution under queen Mary, as dying before our 
civil wars), no wonder if he advanced a fair estate, so that all 
his sons might seem elder brethren, by the large possessions 
left unto them. 

Some falsely character him a back-friend to the church and 
clergy, being a grand benefactor to the church of Norwich, who 
gratefully, under their public seal, honoured him with the 
ensuing testimony : 

" Edwardus Coke, Armiger, seepius et in multis difficillimis 
negotiis ecclesiae nostrse auxiliatus est, et nuper eandem contra 
Templorum Helluones, qui dominia, maneria, et hsereditamenta 
nostra devorare sub titulo obscuro (Concelatum dicunt) sponte 
sua nobis insciis, et sine mercede uM, legitime tutatus est; 
atque eandem suam nostri defensionem, in perpetuam tantse rei 
memoriam, quam posterorum (si opus fuerit), magna cum in- 
dustria et scriptis redegit, et nostree ecclesise donavit." 

As for the many benefices in his own patronage, he freely 
gave them to worthy men ; being wont to say, in his law-lan 
guage, that he would have church-livings pass by livery and 
seisin, not bargain and sale. 

2 G 2 



452 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

Five sorts of people he used to fore-design to misery and 
poverty ; chemists, monopolizers, councillors, promoters, and 
rhyming poets. For three things he would give God solemn 
thanks ; that he never gave his body to physic, nor his heart to 
cruelty, nor his hand to corruption. In three things he did 
much applaud his own success ; in his fair fortune with his 
wife, in his happy study of the laws, and in his free coming by 
all his offices, nee prece, nee pretio ; neither begging nor bribing 
for preferment. 

His parts were admirable : he had a deep judgment, faithful 
memory, active fancy ; and the jewel of his mind was put into 
a fair case, a beautiful body, with a comely countenance ; a 
case which he did wipe and keep clean, delighting in good 
clothes, well worn ; and being wont to say, " that the outward 
neatness of our bodies might be a monitor of purity to our 
souls." 

In his pleadings, discourse, and judgments, he declined all 
circumlocutions, usually saying, " The matter lies in a little 
room." In all places, callings, and jurisdictions, he commended 
modesty and sobriety within their boundaries, saying, " If a 
river swells beyond its banks, it loseth its own channel." 

If any adverse party crossed him, he would patiently reply, 
" If another punisheth me, I will not punish myself." In the 
highest term of business, he made vacation to himself at his 
table ; and would never be persuaded privately to retract what 
he had publicly adjudged, professing, he was a judge in a court 
and not in a chamber. He was wont to say, " No wise man 
would do that in prosperity, whereof he should repent in adver 
sity." He gave for his motto, " Prudens qui patiens ; " and 
his practice was accordingly, especially after he fell into the 
disfavour of king James. 

The cause hereof the reader may find in our English chroni 
cles, whilst we behold how he employed himself when retired to 
a private life, when he did frui suo infortunio, and improved 
his loss to his advantage. He triumphed in his own innocency, 
that tie had done nothing illegally, calling to mind the motto 
which he gave in his rings when made serjeant, " Lex est tutis- 
sima cassis," (the law is the safest helmet.) 

And now he had leisure to peruse what formerly he had writ 
ten, even thirty books, with his own hand ; most pleasing him 
self with a manual, which he called his " Vade mecum," from 
whence, at one view, he took a prospect of his life passed, 
having noted therein most remarkables. His most learned and 
laborious works on the laws will last to be admired by the judi 
cious posterity whilst Fame hath a trumpet left her, and any 
breath to blow therein His judgment lately passed for an 
oracle in law ; and if, since, the credit thereof hath causelessly 
been questioned, the wonder is not great. If the prophet him 
self, living in an incredulous age, found cause to complain, 



JUDGES WRITERS. 453 

" Who hath believed our report ?"* it need not seem strange, 
that our licentious times have afforded some to shake the 
authenticalness of the " reports " of any earthly judge. 

He constantly had prayers said in his own house, and cha 
ritably relieved the poor with his constant alms. The founda 
tion of Sutton s hospital (when indeed but a foundation) had 
been ruined before it was raised, and crushed by some cour 
tiers in the hatching thereof, had not his great care preserved 
the same. The free-school at Thetford was supported in its 
being by his assistance ; and he founded a school, on his own 
cost, at Godwick in this county. 

It must not be forgotten, that Dr. Whitgift (afterwards arch 
bishop of Canterbury) was his tutor, who sent unto his pupil, 
when the queen s attorney, a fair New Testament, with this 
message : " He had now studied common law enough, let him 
hereafter study the law of God." 

Let me add to this, that when he was under a cloud at court, 
and ousted of his judge s place, the lands belonging to the 
church of Norwich, which formerly he had so industriously 
recovered and settled thereon, were again called into question, 
being begged by a peer, who shall pass nameless. Sir Edward 
desired him to desist, telling him, that otherwise he would put 
on his gown and cap, and come into Westminster-hall once 
again, and plead there in any court in justification of what he 
had done. He died at Stoke Poges in Buckinghamshire, on 
Wednesday the 3d of September, being the 83rd year of his 
age, whose last words were^ " Thy kingdom come, Thy will be 
done." 

Sir THOMAS RICHARDSON, Knight, was born at Mulbarton 
in this county, his father being minister thereof. He was bred 
in the study of our municipal law, and became the king s ser- 
jeant therein. Afterwards, on the 28th of November 1626, he 
was sworn chief justice of the Common Pleas, that place having 
been void ten months before. 

.But coming now to our own times, it is safest for me to break 
off. Virgil, I remember, put a period to his Eclogue with 

El Hi/lux in limine latrat. 

" We ll versify no more, 

For do but bark, Hylax doth bark at th entrance of the door." 

Seeing many will be ready to carp, it is safest for me to be 
silent, whilst his brass monument on the south side of West 
minster Abbey thus entertaineth the reader : 

" Deo o. M. 

Thomee Riehardsoni, Iceni, Equitis Aurati, 

Humanum Depositum. 
Ule Juris Municip. omnes gradus exantlavit; 

* Isaiah liii. 1. 



454 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

Conventus tertii ordinis ann. Jacob! Regis 21 et 2-2 

Prolocutor extitit ; 

Fori Civilis (Comraunium Placitorura vocant) 

Supremum Magistratum quinquennium gessit ; 

Ad summum tandem Primarii per Angliam Judicis Tribunal 

A Rege Carolonevectus ; 

Expiravit anno eetatis 66, Salutis MDCXXXIIII. 

Tho. Richardson fil. unicus, Eques Aur. Baro^ Scotise designatus, 

Patri incomparabili posuit." 

This judge married, for his second lady, Elizabeth Beaumont, 
the sister (as I take it) of Mary countess of Buckingham, and 
the relict of Sir John Ashburnham, knight. She was by king 
Charles created baroness of Craumount in Scotland, and 
(though issueless by the judge) the honour descended to his 
grandchild. 

SOLDIERS. 

ROBERT VENILE, Knight; one, I confess, whose name I 
never heard of, till meeting with this memorable note in a 
modern historian :* 

" And here must not be forgotten, Robert Venile, knight, a 
Norfolk man ; who when the Scots and English were ready to 
give battle, a certain stout champion of great stature, com 
monly called Tournboll, coming out of the Scots army, and 
challenging any English man to meet him in a single combate ; 
this Robert Venile accepteth the challenge, and marching 
towards the champion, and meeting by the way a certain black 
mastife dog, which waited on the champion, he suddenly, with 
his sword, cut him off at the loyns, and afterwards did more to 
the champion himself, cutting his head from off his shoul 
ders." 

This put me with blushing enough (that one so eminent in 
himself should be altogether to me obscure) upon the inquiry 
after this valiant knight ; but all my industry could not retrieve 
him in any author, so that he seems to me akin to those 
spirits who appear but once, and finally vanish away. 

Sir OLIVER HINGHAM was born, richly landed, and buried 
in Hingham, an eminent market-town in this county. A right 
valiant man, w r hom king Edward the Third left governor of 
Aquitaine in France ; an honourable but difficult place, being to 
make good a great country with a few men, against a fierce and 
numerous enemy. Yet he gave a good account of his trust. 
When the French lay before Bordeaux, the citizens thereof, to 
abuse the enemy s hopes, set open their gates, displaying the 
golden lilies, the French arms, on their towers, as if they were 
theirs. The French were no sooner securely entered, but brave 
Oliver, captain of this city, and warden of the whole country 

* Sir Richard Baker s Chronicle, 3 Edward III. p. 181. 



SOLDIERS. 455 

y 

for king Edward, gave* them such an entertainment, that they 
drank not so much claret-wine in the city, as they left blood 
behind them.* This happened in the thirteenth year of the 
reign of king Edward the Third. 

This Sir Oliver lived many years after, and was made knight 
of the Garter ; and lies buried at Hingham, under a fair tomb 
of freestone curiously wrought, with his resemblance in his 
coat-armour (having a crowned owl out of an ivy-bush for his 
crestf), lying upon a rock, beholding sun, moon, and stars 
(because a great traveller), all lively set forth in metal, with 
four and twenty mourners about his monument. 

JOHN FASTOLFE, Knight, was a native of this county, as I 
have just cause to believe, though some have made him a French 
man, merely because he was baron of Sineginle in France, on 
which account they, may rob England of many other Worthies. 
He was a ward (and that the last) to John duke of Bedford, a 
sufficient evidence, to such who understand time and place, to 
prove him of English extraction. To avouch him by many 
arguments valiant, is to maintain that the sun is bright, though 
since the stage hath been over-bold with his memory, making 
him a thrasonical puff, and emblem of mock valour. 

True it is, Sir John Oldcastle did first bear the brunt of the 
one, being made the make-sport in all plays for a coward. It 
is easily known out of what purse this black penny came ; the 
Papists railing on him for a heretic, and therefore he must also 
be a coward, though indeed he was a man of arms, every inch 
of him, and as valiant as any in his age. 

Now as I am glad that Sir John Oldcastle is put out, so I 
am sorry that Sir John Fastolfe is put in, to relieve his memory 
in this base service, to be the anvil for every dull wit to strike 
upon. Nor is our comedian excusable, by some alteration of 
his name, writing him Sir John Falstaff (and making him the 
property of pleasure for king Henry the Fifth, to abuse), seeing 
the vicinity of sounds entrench on the memory of that worthy 
knight, and few do heed the inconsiderable difference in spell 
ing of their name. He was made knight of the Garter by king 
Henry the Sixth; and died about the second year of his 
reign. 

Sir CLEMENT PASTON, Knight, fourth son to Sir William 
Paston, son to Sir John Paston, a famous soldier, and favourite 
to king Edward the Fourth (sent by him with the lord Scales 
to conduct the lady Margaret, the sister of the king, to her hus 
band Charles duke of Burgundy), son to William Paston the 
judge, was born at Paston in this county. When a youth he 
was at the burning of Conquest in France ; and afterwards by 

* Holiushed and Stow. t Weaver s Funeral Monuments, p. 817. 



456 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

king Henry the Eighth was made captain of one of his ships of 
Avar ; and in a sea-right took a French galley, and therein the 
admiral of France prisoner, called the Baron of Blancard, whom 
he brought into England, and kept at Castor nigh Yarmouth, till 
he had paid 7000 crowns for his ransom, besides the spoil of the 
galley, wherein he had a cup and two snakes of gold, which 
were the admiral s, and which Sir Clement used during his life 
on festivals, and at his death bequeathed them to his family for 
a monument. He received divers wounds, and was left for 
dead at Musselborough field in Scotland. When Sir Thomas 
Wyat, in the reign of queen Mary, was worsted at Ludgate, and 
desired, for the more civil usage, to render himself to a gentle 
man, he submitted himself (saith our historian) to Sir Clement 
Paston. He served at Newhaven, having command of some 
ships of queen Elizabeth ; and was pensioner to two kings and 
two queens successively. So rare was his happiness, that he 
spent his old age honourably, quietly, and in good house-keep 
ing in this county, where, at Oxnead, he built a goodly house for 
hospitality ; and an hospital hard by, for six poor serving men, 
retainers to his name and family, allowing them convenient 
maintenance. He died anno Domini 1599 ; and lieth buried in 
a fair tomb in the church at Oxnead, 

SEAMEN. 

No county in England doth carry a top and gallant more high 
in maritime performances than Norfolk. Witness the propor 
tion of Yarmouth alone in the ensuing catalogue of ships, used 
by king Edward the Third against Calais : 

The South-fleet ships 493 ; the mariners thereof 9630. The 
North-fleet ships 217; the mariners thereof 4521. Ships of 
London 25 ; mariners of London 662. Ships of Yarmouth 43 ; 
mariners of Yarmouth 1950, or 1075. 

Know, reader, I cannot, with all my diligence and interest, 
recover the original of this catalogue, as extant, not in the 
Tower (where by my friend s favour I could do something), but 
in the king s great wardrobe in London, out of which it is cited 
by our author.* But our times (I fear) have brushed it away 
with the rest of the wardrobe. However, give me leave to 
make some annotations thereon : 

1. These ships, as by their great number appeareth, were 
small vessels ; yet as good as any in that age of England, and 
better (witness their victories) than any in France. 

2. The proportion may seem strange, that Yarmouth should 
afford well nigh twice as many ships and mariners as London 
itself. 

3. Except it was that the king spared London at this time, 
as the sure reserve for his navy on all occasions. 

Hackluit ; in his English Voyages, Vol. I. p. 118, &c. 



SEAMEN. 457 

4. Or except there be a mistake in the numbers (figures in 
writing, as well as figures in rhetoric, may, with a small dash, 
have their meiosis made an hyperbole). And the various lec 
tions m the mariners of Yarmouth doth something shake (though 
not shatter) the credit of the account. 

5. The numbers may be very true, Yarmouth in that age 
being so populous a place that (though but one parish) a lament 
able plague in one year did sweep thence 7000 men to the 
grave.* 

Thus, though the church (and that very large) could never 
hold their living, the churchyard could contain the dead; seeing 
persons alive will not be pressed in their pews so close, as corpse 
may be crowded together in their graves. But let us proceed to 
the particular seamen of this county ; and let none be offended 
if a friar be put in the front before all the rest : viz. 

NICHOLAS of LYxx a f born in that town ; bred in Oxford, 
and is generally accounted a Franciscan friar. But my author, 
being a Carmelite himself, makes him one of his own order. J 
And all acknowledge him an excellent musician, mathematician, 
and astrologer. 

It is reported of him, how in the year 1330, being the thirtieth 
year of the reign of the king Edward the Third, he sailed, with 
others, to the most northern islands in the world. Then leaving 
his company, and taking his astrolabe, he, by the help of art- 
magic (so mathematicians are nick-named by the ignorant), 
went as far as the pole itself, where he discovered four in 
draughts of the ocean, from the four opposite quarters of the 
world, from which many did conceive, as well the flowing of 
the sea, as blasts of the winds, to have their original. Were 
these things true, and had they been known to the ancients, as 
t would have spared philosophers much pains in disputing the 
moon the cause of the motion of the tide in the sea, so had it 
spoiled VirgiPs fancy in making the country .of JEolia the only 
magazine of the winds. 

Sure 1 am, Gerardus Mercator hath so graced the fancy of 
this friar, that he made his description of the countries about 
the arctic pole conformable to this his imaginary discovery, pre 
ferring to fill that his map with a fiction, than otherwise to leave 
; altogether empty. But the other parts of his book have 
more solid and substantial truths, or else weak were the shoul 
ders of his atlas to support the world therewith. 

But to return to friar Nicholas. One tells us he wrote a 
book of his discoveries, and intituled it " Inventio Fortunata."|( 
Sure it is, he was highly honoured by our learned Chaucer ; wit- 

* Catnden s Britannnia, in Norfolk. 

Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. vi. num. 25. J Idem, ibidem. 

In the second of his yEneid. II Dr. John Dee. 



458 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

ness his testimony of him, styling Freere N. Linne " a reve 
rend clerk." But all his learning could not fence him from death, 
which happened about the year 1360 : and he was buried in 
Lynn, the town of his nativity. 

PETER READ. What he was, his ensuing epitaph on his 
monument, in the south aisle in St. Peter s church in Norwich, 
will fully acquaint you : 

" Here under lieth the corps of Peter Read, Esquire, who hath worthily served 
not only his prince and country, but also the emperor Charles the Fifth, both at 
his conquest of Barbary, and his siege at Tunis, as also in other places. Who had 
given him by the said emperour, for his valiant deeds, the order of Barbary. Who 
died the 29th day of December, in the year of our Lord God, 1566. 

We place him among Seamen, because finding first his men 
tion in Hakluit s Voyages,* and salt water is the proper element 
of the pen of that author. 

Secondly, because his service was performed at Tunis, a port- 
town in a sea expedition. Now, although we confess it follows 
not that he was born in or about Norwich, because buried 
therein (vast ofttimes the distance betwixt the cradles and cof 
fins of far-travellers) ; yet let none dislike his placing here, but 
such who can disprove it, and depose the negative, that elsewhere 
he had his nativity. 

It is observable that this Sir Peter, knighted by the emperor, 
as appears in his epitaph (let me add anno 1538), is only styled, 
not less modestly than truly, Esquire upon his monument. I 
confess, some maintain that though higher honours (Baron, 
Count, &c.) are only local, to be owned by the person receiving 
them in that place where they are given him ; yet that knight 
hood given by a sovereign prince is universal, and passeth cur 
rent through all Christendom. But others, their equals, as stiffly 
deny it ; and one who is their superior, (I mean queen Eliza 
beth) who, in the case of Count Arundle, would not admit of 
any foreign honour conferred on any of her subjects, avowing 
that her sheep should only be known by her own mark.f 

WRITERS. 

JOHN BACONTHORPE was born in a village so called in this 
county ;J bred a Carmelite in the convent of Blackney, and af 
terwards studied first in Oxford, then in Paris ; one remarkable 
on many accounts : 

First, for the dwarfishness of his stature, 

" Scalpellum calami atramentum charta libellus," 

His pen-knife, pen, ink-horn, one sheet of paper, and any of his 
books, would amount to his full height. As for all the books 

* Vol. I. p. 99. f See it discussed at large in Camden s Elizabeth. 

$ Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. v. num. l. 



WRITERS, 459 

of his own making, put together, their burden were more than 
his body could bear. 

Secondly, for his high spirit in his low body. Indeed his 
soul had but a small diocese to visit, and therefore might the 
better attend the effectual informing thereof. I have heard it 
delivered by a learned doctor in physic (at the Anatomy lecture 
in London), who a little before had been present at the em- 
bowelling and embalming of duke Hamilton and the lord Capel, 
that the heart of the former was the largest, the latter the least, he 
had ever beheld; inferring hence, that contracted spirits act 
with the greatest vigorousness. 

Thirdly, for his high title, wherewith he was generally termed 
the resolute doctor. Two sorts of people he equally disliked, 
sceptics who are of none ; and unconstant people who are [suc 
cessively] of all opinions; and whilst others turned about 
like the wheel, he was as fixed as the axletree in his own 
judgment. Yet this his resoluteness was not attended with cen 
suring of such who were of another opinion, where equal pro 
bability on either side allowed a latitude to dissent. 

He groped after more light than he saw, saw more than he 
durst speak of, spake of more than he was thanked for by those 
of his superstitious order ; amongst whom, (saith Bale) neither 
before, nor after, arose the like for learning and religion. Most 
agree in the time of his death, anno 1346, though dissenting in 
the place of his burial ; assigning Blackney, Norwich, London, 
the several places of his interment. 

JOHN COLTOX, born at Terrington in this county, was chap 
lain to William Bateman, bishop of Norwich, and first master (by 
the appointment of the founder) of Gonvil-hall in Cambridge.* 
Leland allows him a man plus quam mediocriter doctus et bonus ; 
for which good qualities king Henry the Fourth advanced him 
archbishop of Armagh and primate of Ireland.f He was em 
ployed to the court of Rome in the heavy schism between pope 
Urban the Sixth and Clement the Seventh, which occasioned his 
writing of his learned treatise, " De Causa Schismatis " and because, 
knowing the cause conduceth little to the cure without applying 
the remedy, he wrote another book " De Remediis ejusdem. 
It seemeth he resigned his arch-bishopric somewhat before his 
death, which happened in the year of our Lord, 1404,+ 

ALAN of LYNN was born in that famous mart-town in this 
county, and brought up in the university of Cambridge, where 
he proceeded doctor of divinity, and afterwards became a Car 
melite in the town of his nativity. Great his diligence in read- 



* Parker, in his Skeletos Cantabrigiensis. 

| So saith Pits, but mistaken ; for it was king Richard the Second, p. 382. 

I J. Warens, de Scriptoribus Hibernicis, p. 129. 

Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. vii. num. 54. 



460 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

ing many and voluminous authors ; and no less his desire that 
others with him should reap the fruit of his industry, to which 
end he made indexes of the many writers he perused. 

An index is a necessary implement, and no impediment, of a 
book, except in the same sense wherein the carriages of an army 
are termed impedimenta. Without this, a large author is but a 
labyrinth without a clue to direct the reader therein. I confess 
there is a lazy kind of learning, which is only indical ; when 
scholars (like adders which only bite the horse heels) nibble 
but at the tables, which are calces librorum, neglecting the body 
of the book. But, though the idle deserve no cratches (let not 
a staff be used by them, but on them ;) pity it is the weary 
should be denied the benefit thereof, and industrious scholars 
prohibited the accommodation of an index, most used by those 
who most pretend to contemn it. 

To return to our Alan ; his Herculean labour in this kind 
doth plainly appear to me, who find it such a toil and trouble to 
make but an index of the indexes he had made of the authors 
following. 

1. ./Egidius. 2. Alcuinus. S.Ambrosius. 4. Anselmus. 5. 
Aquinas. 6. Augustinus. 7- Baconthorpe. S.Basil. 9. Bede. 
10. Belethus Bles. 11. Bernard. 12.Berthorius. IS.Cassia- 
nus. 14. Cassiodorus. 15. Chrysostome. 16. Cyril. 17- Da- 
mascen. 18. Gerard. Laodic. 19. Gilbert. 20. Gorham. 21. 
Gregory. 22. Haymo. 23. Hierome. 24. Hilary. 25. Hugo. 
26. Josephus. 27- Neckam. 28. Origen. 29. Pamph. Eusebius. 
30. Phil. Ribot. Sl.Raban. 32. Remigius. 33. Richard. 

All these J. Bale,* professeth himself to have seen in the 
Carmelites library at Norwich, acknowledging many more 
which he saw not. 

Now, although it be a just and general complaint, that 
indexes for the most part are heteroclites, I mean, either 
redundant in what is needless, or defective in what is needful ; 
yet the collections of this Alan were allowed very complete. 
He flourished anno 1420; and was buried at Lynn, in 
the convent of Carmelites. 

WILLIAM WELLS was born (saith Pitsf) at Wells, the cathe 
dral see in Somersetshire, wherein no doubt he is mistaken : 
for (be it reported to any indifferent judgment, that) see 
ing this William had his constant converse in this county 
(living and dying an Augustinian in his convent at Lynn), and 
seeing there is a Wells no mean market-town in this shire, with 
more probability he may be made to owe his nativity and name 
to Norfolk. He was for twenty years Provincial of his order in 
England, doctor of divinity in Cambridge, an industrious 
man and good writer; abate only the siboleth of barbarism, 

De Scrintoribus Britannicis, p. 553. f De Anglitc Scriptoribus, p. 609. 



WRITERS. 461 

the fault of the age he lived in. He died and was buried at 
Lynn, 1421. 

JOHN THORPE was born in a village so called in this county; 
bred a Carmelite at Norwich, and doctor at Cambridge. Logic 
was his master-piece ; and this Daedalus wrote a book intituled 
" The Labyrinth of Sophisms " and another, called " The Rule 
of Consequences ;" for which he got the title of Doctor Ingeni- 
osus.* This. minds me of a prognosticating distich on the phy 
siognomies of two children : 

" Hie erit ingenuus, non ingeniosus ; at ille 
Ingeniosus erit ; non erit ingenuus." 

The latter of these characters agreeth with our Thorpe, who 
had a pound of wit for a dram of good nature ; being of a cruel 
disposition, and a violent persecutor of William White and 
other godly Wichliffites. He died anno Domini 1440; and 
lieth buried at Norwich. 

His name causeth me to remember his namesake of modern 
times, lately deceased, even Mr. John Thorpe, B. D. and fellow 
of Queen s College in Cambridge, my ever honoured tutor ; not 
so much beneath him in logic, as above him in the skill of divi 
nity and in holy conversation. 

[AMP.] JOHN SKELTON is placed in this county, on a dou 
ble probability. First, because an ancient family of his name is 
eminently known long fixed therein. Secondly, because he was 
beneficed at Dis, a market -town in Norfolk. He usually styled 
himself (and that nemine contradicente for ought I find) " The 
king s orator and poet laureat." We need go no further for a 
testimony of his learning than to Erasmus, styling him, in his 
letter to king Henry the Eighth, " Britannicarum literarum lu 
men et decus." 

Indeed he had scholarship enough and wit too much ; seeing 
one saith truly of him, "Ejus sermo salsus in mordacem, 
risus in opprobrium, jocus in amaritudinem/ t Yet was 
his satirical wit unhappy to light on three " Noli me tan- 
gere s ;" viz. the rod of a schoolmaster, the cowls of friars, 
and the cap of a cardinal. The first gave him a lash, 
the second deprived him of his livelihood, the third almost 
ousted him of his life. 

WILLIAM LILLY was the schoolmaster whom he fell foul 
with, though gaining nothing thereby, as may appear by his re 
turn. And this I will do for William Lilly (though often 
beaten for his sake), endeavour to translate his answer ; 

Quid me, Si-eltone, fronte sic nperlti. 
Carjris, vipereo potens veneno ? 
Quid versus trutinA meos iniqua 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. vii. num. 100. 
f Pits, de Angliae Scriptoribus, in anno 1529. 



402 WORTHIES OF XORFOLK. 

Libras ? dicere vera num licebit 9 
Doctrinal tibi dum pararejctmam, 
Et dociusjteri studes poeta, 
Doctrinam nee habes, nee es poeta. 

" With face so bold, and teeth so sharp 
Of viper s venom, why dost carp ? 
Why are my verses by thee weigh d 
In a false scale ? May truth be said ? 
Whilst thou, to get the more esteem, 
A learned poet fain wouldst seem : 
Skelton, thou art, let all men know it, 
Neither learned, nor a poet. 

The Dominican friars were the next he contested with, whose 
viciousness lay pat enough for his hand ; but such foul lubbers 
fell heavy on all which found fault with them. These instigated 
Nix bishop of Norwich to call him to account for keeping a 
concubine, which cost him (as it seems) a suspension from his 
benefice. 

But cardinal Wolsey (impar congressus betwixt a poor poet 
and so potent a prelate) being inveighed against by his pen, and 
charged with too much truth, so persecuted . him, that he 
was forced to take sanctuary at Westminster, where abbot Islip 
used him with much respect. In this restraint he died, June 
21,1529; and is buried in Saint Margaret s chapel with this 
epitaph : 

" J. Sceltonus Vates Pierius hie situs est." 

The word vates being poet or prophet, minds me of this 
dying Skelton s prediction, foretelling the ruin of cardinal 
Wolsey. Surely one unskilled in prophecies, if well versed in 
Solomon s Proverbs, might have prognosticated as much, that, 
" Pride goeth before a fall."* 

We must not forget, how, being charged by some on his 
death-bed, for begetting many children on the aforesaid concu 
bine, he protested, " that in his conscience he kept her in the 
notion of a wife, though such his cowardliness, that he would 
rather confess adultery (then accounted but a venial] than own 
marriage, esteemed a capital crime in that age." 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

JOHN BARRET was born of an honest family at Lynn in this 
county ;f bred a Carmelite of Whitefriars in Cambridge, when 
learning ran low, and degrees high, in that university ; for many 
usurped scarlets, qualified only with ignorance and impudence 
(properties seldom parted) : so that a scholar could scarcely be 
seen for doctors, till the university, sensible of the mischief 
thereby, appointed doctor Cranmer (afterwards archbishop of 
Canterbury) to be the poser-general of all candidates in divinity ; 
amongst whom he stopped Barret for insufficiency. 

* Proverbs xvi. 18. 

f J. Bale, in his book intituled : Scriptores nostri temporis." 



WRITERS BENEFACTORS. 463 

Back goes Barret to Lynn ; turns over a new, yea many new 
leaves, plying his book to purpose, whose former ignorance pro 
ceeded from want of pains, not parts ; and in short time became 
a tolerable, a good, an excellent, and admirable scholar ; and, 
commencing doctor with due applause, lived many years a pain 
ful preacher in Norwich, always making honourable mention of 
doctor Cranmer as the means of his happiness.* Indeed he had 
been ever, if not once, a dunce, who, if not debarred, had never 
deserved his degree. Bale saith, that, in the reign of queen 
Mary, he returned to his vomit, and became a great papist, But 
his praises are better to be believed than his invectives ; and 
seeing wood, not growing crooked, but warping with weight, 
may be straightened again, we charitably believe that, though 
complying in times of persecution, he returned to the truth in 
the reign of queen Elizabeth, in the beginning whereof he 
died. 

EDMOND GouRNEY,born in this county, was bred in Queen s 
and Bene t College, in Cambridge, where he commenced bache 
lor of divinity, and afterwards was beneficed in this shire. An 
excellent scholar, who could be humorous, and would be serious, 
as he was himself disposed ; his humours were never profane 
towards God, or injurious towards his neighbours ; which pre 
mised, none have cause to be displeased, if in his fancies he 
pleased himself. 

Coming to me in Cambridge when I was studying, he de 
manded of me the subject whereon I studied. I told him, " I 
was collecting the witnesses of the truth of the Protestant religion 
through all ages, even in the depth of Popery, conceiving it 
feasible though difficult to evidence them." 

" It is a needless pains/ said he, (( for I know that I am de 
scended from Adam, though I cannot prove my pedigree from 
him." And yet, reader, be pleased to take notice, he was born 
of as good a family as any in Norfolk. His book against Tran- 
substantiation, and another on the Second Commandment, are 
learnedly and judiciously written. He died in the beginning of 
our civil wars. 

BENEFACTORS OF THE PUBLIC. 

GODFREY BOLLEN, Knight, son of Jeffrey Bollen, was born 
at Salle in this county.f Being but a second brother, he was 
sent into the city to acquire wealth, " ad sedificandum domum 
antiquam " unto whose achievements fell in both the blood and 
inheritance of his eldest brother, for want of issue male ; J by 
which accumulation he attained great wealth, and anno Domini 
1457 was Lord Mayor of London. By his testament, made in 
the next year, he gave liberally to the prisoners, hospitals, and 

* Fox, Acts and Monuments, in the Life of Archbishop Cranmer- 
| Stow s Survey, p. 567. J Fragmenta Regalia. 



464 WORTHIES OK NORFOLK. 

lazar-houses.* Besides, he gave one thousand pounds t (the 
greatest sum I meet with in that age to pious uses) to poor 
householders in London ; and two hundred pounds to those in 
Norfolk. But it was the height of his and our happiness that 
he was great-grandfather, by the mother s side, to queen 
Elizabeth. 

JAMES HOBART was born in this county, though I dare not 
say at Halleshall, which he left to his posterity. He was at 
torney-general, and of the privy council, to king Henry the 
Seventh ; by him dubbed knight, at such time as he created 
Henry his son prince of Wales. This worthy patriot (besides 
his many benefactions to his parish church in London) built a 
fair bridge over the river Waveny,J betwixt this county and 
Suffolk, and a firm causeway thereby, with many other works of 
charity, so that the three houses of his issue, planted in this 
county, with fair possessions, may be presumed to prosper the 
better for the piety of this their ancestor. 

ANDREW PERNE was born at Bilny; bred in Peter-house, 
whereof he was fellow and master, as also proctor and vice- 
chancellor of Cambridge and dean of Ely. Very bountiful he 
was to his college, wherein he founded a fellowship and scholar 
ships ; besides many rare manuscripts he acquired to their 
library. |1 But his memory ought most to be honoured (saving 
God s living temples, is better than building dead colleges) on 
this account, because, in the days of queen Mary, he was the 
screen to keep off the fire of persecution from the faces and 
whole bodies of many a poor Protestant ; so that by his means 
no Gremial of the university was martyred therein. 

I know he is much taxed for altering his religion four times 
in twelve years (from the last of king Henry the Eighth to the 
first of queen Elizabeth); a Papist, a Protestant, a Papist, a Pro 
testant; but still Andrew Perne. However, be it known, that 
though he was a bending willow, he was no smarting -willow, 
guilty of compliance not cruelty, yea preserving many who 
otherwise had been persecuted. 

He was of a very facetious nature, excellent at blunt-sharp 
jests, and perchance sometimes too tart in true ones. One in 
stance of many ; this dean chanced to call a clergyman fool 
(who indeed was little better) ; who returned, " that he would 
complain thereof to the lord bishop of Ely." " Do," saith the 
dean, " when you please ; and my lord bishop will confirm you/ 
Yet was doctor Perne himself at last heart-broken with a jest 
(as I have been most credibly informed from excellent hands,) 

* Viz. the donation of Sir Simon Eyre. f Stow s Survey, p. 89. 

J Camden s Britannia, in Norfolk. 

Parker, in his Sceletos Cantab, in MS. 

|| Some have questioned whether the MSS. were of his gift. F. 



BENEFACTORS. 465 

on this occasion. He was at court with his pupil archbishop 
Whitgift in a rainy afternoon, when the queen was (I dare not 
say wilfully, but) really resolved to ride abroad, contrary to the 
mind of her ladies, who were on horseback (coaches as yet being 
not common) to attend her. Now one Clod the queen s jester 
was employed by the courtiers to laugh the queen out of so in 
convenient a journey. " Heaven," saith he, " Madam, dis 
suades you, it is cold and wet ; and earth dissuades you, it is 
moist and dirty. Heaven dissuades you, this heavenly-minded 
man archbishop Whitgift ; and earth dissuades you, your fool 
Clod, such a lump of clay as myself. And if neither will pre 
vail with you, here is one that is neither heaven nor earth, but 
hangs betwixt both, Doctor Perne, and he also dissuades you/ 
Hereat the queen and the courtiers laughed heartily ; whilst the 
Doctor looked sadly, and, going over with his grace to Lambeth, 
soon saw the last of his life. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

Sir THOMAS GRESHAM was born in this county; bred a 
mercer and merchant in the city of London, where God so 
blessed his endeavours, that he became the wealthiest citizen in 
England of his age, and the founder of two stately fabrics, the 
Old Exchange,* a kind of college for merchants ; and Gresham 
College, a kind of Exchange for scholars. 

I have learned from goldsmiths, that vessels made of silver 
and gilt are constantly burnished ; seldom or never those few 
which are made of massive gold, whose real intrinsic worth dis- 
daineth to borrow any foil from art. Let lesser donations be 
amplified with rhetorical praises. Nothing need be said of this 
worthy knight s gifts but his gifts ; and take them truly copied 
from the original of his will, as followeth : 

(( First, concerning the building in London called the Royal 
Exchange, with all shops, cellars, vaults, tenements thereunto 
belonging ; I will and dispose one moiety to the mayor, com 
monalty, and citizens of London, upon confidence that they 
perform the payments, and other intents hereafter limited. 

" The other moiety of the said buildings, to the wardens and 
commonalty of the mystery of Mercers, of the city of London, 
upon trust that they perform the payments, and other intents 
hereafter mentioned. 

" I will and dispose, that they the said mayor and commonalty 
do give and distribute, for the sustentation, maintenance, and 
finding four persons, from time to time to be chosen, nominated, 
and appointed by the said mayor, &c. to read the lectures of 
divinity, astronomy, music, and geometry, within mine own 
dwelling house in the parish of Saint Helen s. I give and dis 
pose, out of this moiety, two hundred pounds, to be payed to the 
four readers sufficiently learned, fifty pounds to each yearly. 

* Burnt down in J.in. 1839. E: 1 . 
VOL. II. 2 II 



466 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

" I likewise give the said mayor, &c. fifty-three pounds, six 
shillings arid eight-pence, to be yearly distributed in manner 
following : 

" Unto eight alms-folks, whom the said mayor, &c. shall ap 
point to inhabit my eight alms-houses, in the parish of Saint 
Peter s Poor, the sum of six pounds thirteen shillings four 
pence, to each of them, to be paid at four usual terms, &c. 

" I likewise dispose out of this moiaty fifty pounds yearly, to 
be distributed by the said mayor, &c. to the prisoners in New 
gate, Ludgate, the King s-bench, the Marshalsea, the _ Counter 
in Wood Street, ten pounds to each prison, to be paid among 
the poor thereof. 

" The other moiety of the said building disposed to the Mer 
cers, I will and dispose out of it, to be by them paid, one hundred 
and fifty pounds to the finding, &c. three persons, to be by the 
wardens, &c. chosen, nominated, and appointed, to read the 
lectures of law, physic, and rhetoric. 

" That the said Mercers shall, out of their moiety, yearly ex 
pend one hundred pounds, at four several dinners, for the whole 
company of the said corporation, in the Mercer s hall in London, 
on every quarter day. 

" That they shall distribute to the several hospitals of Christ s 
Church, Saint Bartholomew s, the Spittle at Bedlam, the hos 
pital for the poor in Southwark, and the Poultry Counter, fifty 
pounds yearly, in money or other provisions ; ten pounds to 
each. 

" My mansion house, with the gardens, stables, &c. I give to 
the mayor and commonalty of London, and also to the wardens 
and commonalty of the mystery of Mercers, to have and to hold 
in common ; upon trust and confidence that they observe, per 
form, and keep my will, and true meaning hereafter expressed. 

" My will, intent, and meaning is, that the said mayor, and 
commonalty, and their successors, and that the said wardens and 
commonalty of the Mercers, shall permit and suffer seven per 
sons, by them from time to time to be elected and appointed as 
aforesaid, meet and sufficiently learned to read the said seven lec 
tures, to have the occupation of all my said mansion house, 
gardens, &c. ; for them and every of them there to inhabit, 
study, and daily to read the said several lectures. And my will 
is, that none shall be chosen to read any of the said lectures so 
long as he shall be married ; neither shall receive any fee or sti 
pend appointed for the reading of the said lectures. 

" Moreover, I will and dispose that the said mayor and com 
monalty, and Mercers, shall enjoy the said Royal Exchange, &c. 
for ever, severally by such moieties as is before expressed ; pro 
vided they do, in the term of fifty years, provide and obtain 
sufficient and lawful dispensations and licenses, warrant and au 
thority, upon trust and confidence, and to the intent that they 
shall severally and for ever maintain and perform the payment, 



BENEFACTORS. 467 

charges, and all other intents and meanings thereof before limited 
and expressed, according to the intent and true meaning of these 
presents. 

. " And that I do require and charge the said corporations and 
chief governors thereof, with circumspect diligence, and without 
long delay, to procure and see to be done and obtained such li 
cences, as they will answer for the same before Almighty God : 
for if they, or any of them, should neglect to obtain such 
licences, no prince nor counsel in any degree will deny or defeat 
the same ; and if conveniently by my will or other conveyance, I 
might assure it, I would not leave it to be done after my death ; 
then the same shall revert to my heirs, whereas I do mean the 
same to the Commonweal ; and then their default thereof shall 
be to the reproach and condemnation of the said corporation 
before God, &c." 

This worthy knight completed his second change, I mean of a 
mortal life for a blessed eternity, on the 21st of November 1579 ; 
and lieth buried in the parish church of Saint Helen s. 

Sir WILLIAM PASTON, Knight, son and heir to ^Erasmus 
Paston, of Paston, esquire, is justly recounted a public bene 
factor. True it is, the family whence he was extracted were al 
ways forward in deeds of charity, according to the devotion of 
the days they lived in. Witness their bountiful donations to 
the abbeys of St. Bennet, in the Holme and Bromholme in this 
county. After the Reformation, they had not (with too many) 
less heat, because more light ; but continued the stream, though 
they changed the channel, of charity. This Sir W T illiam erected 
a very fair school, with thirty pounds per annum for the main 
tenance thereof, at Northwalsam, in this county; a deed, no 
doubt, acceptable to the God of heaven. 

Solomon saith, " Teach a child in the trade of his youth." 
But, alas ! it is above the reach of poor parents to teach the chil 
dren, lacking learning to do it themselves, and livelihood 
to hire others ; save where such good persons as this worthy 
knight have made provision for them. This Sir William mar 
ried Frances the daughter of Sir Tho. Clear of Stokesby ; and 
was great grand-father to Sir William Paston, the bountiful pro 
moter of all my weak endeavours. 

HENRY HOWARD, youngest son of Henry Howard, earl of 
Surrey, and brother to Thomas Howard, last duke of Norfolk, 
was born at Shotesham in this county.* He was bred a serious 
student for many years in King s College, in Cambridge, then in 
Trinity-hall, going the ordinary path and pace to the degree 
of mastership, without any honorary advantage.f Here he be- 

* The Continuer of Stow s Annals, p. 1012. 
f Cowel s Epistle Dedicatory to his Institutions. 

2 H 2 



468 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

came a great and general scholar ; witness his large and learned 
work, entitled, " A Dispensative against the Poison of supposed 
Prophecies," and dedicated to Sir Francis Walsingham. His 
fortune, left him by his father, was not great ; and he lived 
privately all the reigri of queen Elizabeth, till king James ad 
vanced him in honour and wealth. 

Here, for variety sake, and the better to methodize our mat 
ter, we will make use of a distinction, common in the custom 
house about bills of lading, Inwards and Outwards, observing 
what greatness were imported on him, what gratitude was ex 
ported and performed by him. 

Inwards. 1. King James created him Baron of Marnhill, 
in Dorsetshire. 2. Earl of Northampton. 3. Lord Privy 
Seal. 4. Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. 5. Knight of the 
Garter. 6. Cambridge chose him her chancellor. 

Outward. 1. He founded and endowed an hospital, for twelve 
poor women and a governor, at Rising in this county. 2. Ano 
ther for twelve poor men and a governor, at Clun in Shropshire. 
3. Another at Greenwich in Kent, for a governor and twenty 
poor men, of whom eight are to be chosen out of Shotesham, 
the place of his nativity. 

He died the 15th of June, 1614; and was buried in the an 
cient chapel of the castle of Dover. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

SHARNBORN, born at, and Lord of, Sharnborn, a con 
siderable manor in this county. This manor William the 
Conqueror, out of the plenitude of his power, conferred on one 
Warren, a Norman soldier. 

-But Sharnborn was not so tame as silently to sit down, and 
suffer a stranger peaceably to possess his inheritance, which his 
English ancestors for many years had enjoyed ; but fairly tra 
versed his title (I will not say in Westminster-hall, as of later 
erection in the reign of king Rufus, but) in that public place 
where pleas were held in that age. 

Surely none but a Norfolk-man durst go to law with the Con 
queror, and question the validity of his donations. Yea, brave 
Sharnborn got the better of the suit j and the king s grant was 
adjudged void. This is pertinently pressed by many, to prove 
that king William (though in name) was in very deed no con 
queror, but came in by composition to keep the laws of Eng 
land. 

Now, as I am heartily sorrowful that Sharnborn, possessed 
ever since (almost 600 years) by that name and family, should 
in our age be sold and aliened from it (whose heir males are 
just now extinct) ; so am I cordially glad that it is bought by a 
worthy person, Francis Ash, esquire ; which, with some limita 
tion, hath freely settled it (being of good yearly value) on 
Emanuel College : and may they as long enjoy it as the former 



LORD MAYORS GENTRY. 469 

owners, if, before that term, the day of judgment put not a 
period to all earthly possessions ! 

LORD MAYORS. 

1. Godfry Bullen, son of Geffrey Bullen, of Salle, probably 

Mercer, 1457. 

2. Bartholomew Rede, son of Robert Rede, of Cromer, Gold 

smith, 1502. 

3. Richard Gresham, son of John Gresham, of Holt, Mercer, 

1537. 

4. John Gresham, son of John Gresham, of Holt, Mercer, 1547. 

5. Thomas Cambell, son of Robert Cambell, of Fullsam, Iron 

monger, 1609. 

6. John Leman, son of John Leman, of Gillingham, fishmon 

ger, 1616. 

7- Edward Barkham, son of Edward Barkham, of Southacre, 
Draper, 1621. 

THE NAMES OF THE GENTRY OF THIS COUNTY, 

KETURNED BY THE COMMISSIONERS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF KING HENRY 

THE SIXTH, 1433. 

William bishop of Norwich, and John de Morley, chevalier; 
Robert Clifton, mil. and John Roys (knights for the shire) ; 
Commissioners to take the oaths. 

Abbatis de Langle. Tho. Kerderston. 

Abbatis de Creek. Hen. Inglose, mil. 

Abbatis de Wendelyng. Tho. Tudenham, mil. 

Abbatis de Derham. Rog. Harsick, mil. 

Prioris Sancte Fidis. Hen. Richford, mil. 

Prioris de Walsyngham. Johan. Curson, mil. 

Prioris de Tetford. Henry Grey. 

Prioris de Linne. Willielmi Calthorp. 

Prioris de Yernemouth. Johan. Fitz-Rauf de Moris. 

Prioris de Ingham. Thomee Willoughby. 

Prioris de Cokysforde. Oliveri Groos. 

Prioris de Westar. Thomse Chaumbir. 

Prioris de Penteneye. Edmundi Winter. 

Prioris de Castelacre. Nich. Apilyerde. 

Prioris de Bromhill. Will. Apilyerde. 

Prioris de Childham. Nicholai Castel. 

Prioris de Wyrmingheye. Edmundi Stapulton. 

Prioris de Bokynham. Thomse Pigot. 

Prioris de Bromholm. Henrici Walpole. 

Prioris de Hyking. Thomce Trusbute. 

Prioris de Petreston. Willielmi Byllingford. 

Prioris de Flycham. Willielmi Daubeney. 

Prioris de Beeston. Thomee Astele. 

Johan. Clyfton, mil. Radulphi Lampet. 

Briani Stapulton, mil. Johannis Woodehouse. 



470 



WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 



Johan. Berney de Redhatn. 

Job. Berney de Wythingham. 

Georgii Holkham., 

Willielmi Yelverton. 

Edmundi Wychyngham. 

Johan. Heydon. 

Will. Grey de Merston. 

Willielmi Raimis. 

Thomse Dengayne. 

Johannis Clepisby. 

Johannis Strange. 

Richardi Gogh. 

Christopheri Strange. 

Henrici Catte. 

Johannis Bakon. 

Henrici Nottyngharn. 

Henrici Sharyngton. 

Roberti Martham. 

Willielmi Bellingford. 

Walteri Aslak. 

Thomee Lovell. 

Thomse Shuldham. 

Simonis Fincham. 

Will. Walton. 

Thomse Derham. 

Roberti Godard. 

Thomas Kervile. 

Hen. Stormer. 

Johan. Hamond. 

Georg. Hethe. 

Johan. Fox de Castelacre. 

Nich. Bokkyng. 

Nich. Stonwell. 

Will. Spynk. 

Thomse Chelton. 

Johan. Bekkeswell. 

Johan. Rysele. 

Roberti Popyngeay. 

Johan. Wentworth. 

Walt. Eton. 

Will. Thurleton. 

Will. Tweyth. 

Edmundi Sekford. 

Johan. Michell. 

Thomae Boys. 

Johan. Dory. 

Johan. Bacheler. 

Thomse Selors. 

Thomse Brigge. 



Thomse Gurney. 
Will. Brampton. 
Johan. Clare. 
Johan. Austyn. 
Johan. Bolle. 
Roberti Brom. 
Johan. Knight. 
Galfridi Grey. 
Johan. Bullok. 
Johan. Brustbon. 
Simonis Godknap. 
Robert. Padyrys. 
Robert. Blogge. 
Rich. Chirche. 
Ade Mundforth. 
Johan. Gigges. 
Will. Dyton. 
Galfridi Craneweys. 
Edmundi Massingham, 
Osberti Mundford. 
Tho. Fyssher. 
Johan. Seche. 
Will. Thakker. 
Will. Barbour. 
Johan. Crane. 
Johan. Holdernese. 
Leonardi Claxton. 
Tho. Fannyngham. 
Tho. Botylsham. 
Johan. Thursby. 
Johan. Wesingham. 
Rich. Frank. 
Nich. Frank. 
Johan. Wythe. 
Johan. Parlementer. 
Will. Wythe. 
Rad. Brecham. 
Roberti Walsyngham. 
Will. Kirton. 
Johan. Stannton. 
Johan. Miryoll. 
Johan. Syff. 
Tho. Spicer. 
Tho. Salysbury. 
Johan. Waryn. 
Johan. Warner. 
Rich. Lychour. 
Johan Bury. 
Johan. Brekerope. 



GENTRY. 



471 



Edmundi Goldyng. 
Johan. Tylney. 
Andr. S wanton. 
Will. Kellowe. 
Johan. Abbot. 
Johan. Frewill. 
Will. Stapulton. 
Johan. Wayte. 
Johan. Gybbon. 
Rober. Brandon. 
Nich. Wythe. 
Johan. Nicolasson. 
Johan. Andrewe. 
Alexan. Draper. 
Tho. Midleton. 
Johan. Thorn. 
WiD. Sylk. 
Simon. Body. 
Nich. Benpre. 
Edmund. Bonet. 
Tho. Feltwell. 
Rad. Midylton. 
Rich. Baker. 
Johan. Howard. 
Johan. Eye. 
Rich. Deye. 
Rich. Billingforth, 
Johan, Tremche. 
Will. Bullman. 
Will. Candelere. 
Will. Stokker. 
Johan. Bosse. 
Johan. Sturmy. 
Will. Fyrsk. 
Johan. Parker. 
Sen. Hetersite. 
Rog. Scot. 
Johan. Joye. 
Hen. Warner. 
Tho. Manning. 
Rich. Cans. 
Tho. Norwold. 
Johan. Bredeman. 
Georg. Palgrave. 
Johan. Rede. 
Will. Ede. 
Tho. Gyle. 
Tho. Candeler. 
Tho. Stywarp. 



Johan. Walpell. 
Tho. Canon. 
Johan. Mortoft. 
Rich. Vewtre. 
Johan, Alcok. 
Will. James. 
Johan. Tylls. 
Rog. Brook. 
Johan. Bee. 
Will. Tanerham. 
Rich. Baret. 
Johan. Loumour. 
Tho. Walisch. 
Galf. Brewster. 
Will. Newegate. 
Johan. Man. 
Pet. Hokkeham. 
Will. Seyne. 
Johan. Monk. 
Johan. Lewes. 
Johan. Seforth. 
Tho. Colles. 
Johan. Chapman. 
Edmundi Clerk. 
Tho. Bertram. 
Rob. Norwich. 
Johan. Sweyn. 
Johan, Puttok. 
Tho. Trunch. 
Johan. Wynse. 
Johan. Byrston. 
Tho. Stipoard. 
Rich. Cordy. 
Johan. Webbe. 
Rich. Wode. 
Johan. Spark. 
Johan. Atte Mere. 
Johan. Ely. 
Johan. Dany. 
Edmundi Wode. 
Tho. Richeforth. 
Johan. Dawes. 
Alani Twkke. 
Simon Cook. 
Nich. Parke. 
Johan. Legge. 
Rich. Henke. 
Rob. Ling. 
Tho. Mouiisewes. 



472 



WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 



Tho. Yekesworth 

Johan. Trench. 
. Johan. Elyngham. 

Johan. Bettys, 

Johan. Porter. 

Johan. Bemys. 

Johan. Molitis. 

Edw. Wylnby. 

Will Moletis. 

Tho. Holley. 

Nich. Holley. 

Robert. Holley. 

Simon, Dykone. 

Johan. Westhaw. 

Edmund. Parker. 

Galf. Fox. 

Johan, Draper. 

Johan. Homerstoii. 

Hen. Aphagh. 

Will. Atte Hagru 

Hugo. Bedenham. 

Will. Prentys. 

Johan. Watterden. 

Tho. Burgh. 

Johan. Doggyng. 

Geor. Wyton. 

Will. Sparkam. 

Johan. Baily. 

Hen. Thursby. 

Johan. Mersch. 

Galf. Cobbe. 

Denys Wellys, 

Tho. Moket. 

Edmundi Cole. 

Will. Cole. 

Johan. Scorowr. 

Johan. Reppes. 

W r alt. Wedurby. 

Johan, Brechinhanu 

Will. Payn. 

Alex. Payn. 

Johan. Brygg. 

Johan. Crosse. 

Steph. Silvestre. 

Bob. Teyser. 

Tho. Bowde. 
Johan. Swayn, jun. 
Johan. Grenede Folsham. 
Rob. Kervyle. 



Simon. Tyller. 
Johan. Arnald. 
Rich. Carleton. 
Edmundi Michell. 
Johan. Wodesende. 
Will. Stubbe. 
Johan. Lawyes. 
Hen. Lesingham. 
Johan. Jucewode. 
Nich. Rake. 
Will. Fox. 
Johan. Green. 
Will. Dallyng. 
Nich. Waterman. 
Will. Norwhich. 
Johan. Tasburgh. 
Johan. Brampton. 
Robert. Brese. 
Edmundi Ade. 
Tho. Pye. 
Rich. Rede. 
Johan. Gerard. 
Johan. Dam. 
Johan. Bernard. 
Johan. Lynford. 
Tho. Stodhagh. 
Rich. Ballord. 
Tho. Walsham. 
Johan. Spany. 
Johan. Penny. 
Johan. Hastynges. 
Rich. Stotevyle. 
Tho. Arnald. 
Robert. Elys. 
Will. Granour. 
Rich. Elys. 
Johan. Berhyng. 
Rog. Hoddes. 
Will. Baily. 
Johan. Crancle. 
Nich. Baxter. 
Robert. Dooke. 
Nich. Pykeryng. 
Robert. Kent. 
Tho. Unphry. 
Walt. Heylot. 
Tho. Rycheman. 
Johan. Howard. 
Johan. Levoth. 



GENTRY SHERIFFS. 



473 



Johan. Ansell. 
Robert. Fyllisson. 
Rog. Calleston. 
Tho. Halle. 
Robert. Martham. 
Galf. Walle. 
Johan. Panne. 
Johan. Cobald. 
Johan. Phelipp. 
Johan. Merschgate. 
Robert. Cupper. 
Tho. Eyre. 
Johan. Cobbe. 
Rich. Flykke. 
Robert. Heyloth. 
Johan. Mannyng. 
Simon. Falsham. 
Robert. Hendy. 
Lauren. Oky. 
Radulph. Bronnyng. 
Johan. Pepyr. 
Tho. Martyn. 
Johan. Roche, 
Johan. Span. 
Oliv. Kevet. 
Johan. Deynes. 
Johan. Holler. 



Johan. Fuller. 

Johan. Puttok. 

Edmund. Rysyng. 

Robert. Atte Lee. 

Johan. Broune de Weveton. 

Johan. Meleman. 

Tho. Brydge. 

Thorn. Roose. 

Galf. Bolayn. 

Will. Blonnevyse. 

Edmund. Yonghousbond. 

Edmund. Godewyn. 

Tho. Twytwell. 

Rich. Holdyche. 

Johan. Holtman. 

Robert. Randes. 

Tho. Glaveyn. 

Robert. Wyrmegey. 

Tho. Person. 

Robert. Wylly. 

Johan. Maynard. 

Johan. de Pulham. 

Willielm. Arnald de Crommer. 

Robert. Russell. 

Johan. Wodewane. 

Ade Williamson, et 

Robert. Cravell. 



SHERIFFS 
OF NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK. 



HENRY II. 



Anno 



3 

4 
5 
6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

16 



Rich. Basset, et 
Alberi. de Veer. 
Will, de Nova Villa, et 
Will, de Jeaxmeto. 
Will, de Caisuei, sive 
Caisuer. 

Will. 



Will, de Chaisu. 

Oggerus Dapifer, for six 

years. 
Barth. Glanvill, et 



Anno 

Vinar. Capellanus, et 
Will. Bardull, for six years. 

22 Vinar. Cappellanus, for 
eleven years. 

33 Vin. pro dimid. ann. et 
Will. fil. Hervei dimid. 

RICHARD I. 

1 Will. fil. Hervei. 

2 Idem. 

3 Rob. fil. Rog. et 
Pet. de Edichfeld. 

4 Rob. fil. Rog. et 
Sam. de Salia. 

5 Idem. 

6 Idem. 



474 



WORTHIES OF NORFOLK, 



Anno 

7 Osber. de Longo Campo. 

8 Idem. 

9 Idem. 

10 Rob. fil. Rog. et 
Rich, de Gosfeld. 

JOH. REG. 

1 Rod. fil. Rog. et 
Rich, de Gosfeld. 

2 Idem. 

3 Pet. de Mealton. 

4 Idem. 

5 Idem. 

6 Alex, de Dunham, et 
Alex. Banister. 

7 Idem. 

8 Johan. de Cornheard, for 

four years. 

12 Walt, de Huntingfeld, et 
WiU. Esturmi. 

13 Idem. 

14 Rob. fil. Rog. et 
WiU. fil. Rosicke. 

15 WiU. sive Walt, de Hun 
tingfeld, Will. Escurmi. 

16 Johan. fil. Rob. et 
Rob. de Kent. 

17 Johan. fil. Rob. fil. Rogeri. 

HENRY III. 
1 

2 Hubert, de Burge. 

3 Idem. 

4 Idem. 

5 Hu. et Rich, de Frefing- 

feld. 

6 Hubert, et Rich. Ducket. 

7 Idem. 

8 Hub. et Tho. Ingolde- 

thorpe. 

9 Idem. 

10 HugoRufus. 

11 Idem. 

12 Herb, de Alencum, for 

five years. 

17 Rob. de Brivas. 

18 Idem. 



Anno 

19 Tho. de Heningham. 

20 Idem. 

21 Tho. Ingoldesthorpe. 

22 Idem. 

23 Rob. de Broyons. 

24 Johan. de Ulecott. 

25 Idem. 

26 Hen. de Heketon, et 
Hamo Passeleve. 

27 Idem. 

28 Hamo Passeleve, for six 

years. 

34 Rob. de Savage, for six 
years. 

40 WiU. de Swyneford. 

41 Idem. 

42 Idem. 

43 Hamo Hanteyn. 

44 Hamo et Hen. de Stanho. 

45 Idem. 

46 Phil. Marnium, et 
WiU. de Hekam. 

47 Nich. Espigornel, for five 

years. 

52 Rob. de Norton. 

53 Idem. 

54 Idem. 

55 Will. Giffard. 

56 Idem. 

EDWARD i. 

1 WiU. Giffard. 

2 Idem. 

3 Rob. fil. Johannis. 

4 Wai. de Shelfhaugre. 

5 Idem. 

6 Walt. Granimt. 

7 Johan. Brito, et 
Will, de Bedham. 

8 Idem. 

9 Idem. 

10 Will, de Doinge. 

11 Idem. 

12 Will, de Rochinger, for 

six years. 

18 Rich, de Belhus. 

19 Will, de Nedham. 



SHERIFFS. 



475 



Anno 

20 Idem. 

21 Idem. 

22 Will, de Gerbe. 

23 Idem. 

24 Idem. 

25 Will, de Rideston. 

26 Idem. 

27 Will, de Sutton. 

28 Idem. 

29 Will, de Ailton. 

30 Rob. Hereward, for five 

years. 
35 Egid. de Mumpinzon. 

EDWARD II. 

1 Tho. de Saneto Omero. 

2 Hen. de Seagrave. 

3 Rob. Baygnard. 

4 Idem. 

5 Idem. 

6 Rob. et Alex, de Clave- 

ringe. 

7 Rich, de Claveringe. 

8 Rich, de Refham. 

9 Ric. et Alex, de Claveringe. 

10 Johan. de Fitten, et 
Will, de Rungeton. 

11 Johan. Howard. 

12 Johan. Seafoule. 

13 Johan. Howard, et 
Edw. Hemingne. 

14 Idem. 

15 Idem. 
16 

17 Egid. de Wachesham. 

18 Idem. 

19 Idem. 

EDWARD III. 

1 Tho. de Lindringham, et 
Rqb. de Walkefare. 

2 Johan. de Londham. 

3 Idem. 

4 Idem. 

5 Rog. de Kirdeston. 

6 Rog. de Bourne, et 



Anno. 

Rog. de Kirdeston. 

7 Rog. de Bourne, et 
Edw. de Baconsthorpe. 

8 Johan. de Cailly. 

9 Idem. 

10 Rob. de Causton. 

11 Idem. 

12 Johan. de Harsike. 

13 Rob. Causton, et 
Joh. Harsike. 

14 Rob. 

15 Tho. Belisforde. 

16 Edw. de Creting. 

17 Idem. 

18 Idem. 

19 Johan. H award. 

20 Will, de Midleton. 

21 Idem. 

22 Idem. 

23 Johan. de Colby. 

24 Idem. 

25 Will, de Midleton. 

26 Idem. 

27 Edw. de Creting. 

28 Idem. 

29 Tho. de Mareux. 

30 Guido Seynclere. 

31 Idem. 

32 Idem. 

33 Johan. de Battlesden. 

34 Idem. 

35 Tho. de Saneto Omero, 

for four years. 

39 Rog. Gyney. 

40 Will de Clere. 

41 Tho. Morieux. 

42 Idem. 

43 Rog. Holdich. 

44 Idem. 

45 Edw. de Thopre. 

46 Rob. Bacon. 

47 Johan. Holbroke. 

48 Johan. Mantby. 

49 Will, de Kirdeston. 

50 Oliver de Calthrope. 

51 Johan. de Browes. 



WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 



HENRY II. 

16, BARTH. GLANVILL, et VINAR. CAPELLANUS. It may 
seem strange that this Vinar. Capellanus, that is Vinar, the 
Chaplain, should be sheriff so many years together. One would 
have sought for a person of his profession rather in the pulpit 
than in the shire-hall. But in that age men in orders did not 
only engross places of judicature, but also such as had military 
and martial relation, whereof the sheriffs place in some sort 
may seem to partake. Sure I am, that under the reign of king 
Charles, one prick *d sheriff of Rutland escaped by pleading that 
he was a deacon. But now all this is said, this Vinar. the 
chaplain may still be a layman, seeing in England " Multi clerici 
sunt laici," (many clerks by name are no clerks by profession.) 
Chaplain may be his surname, and the same with de Capella or 
Capett a right ancient name, I assure you. 

SHERIFFS OF NORFOLK AND SUFFOLK. 
RICH. II. 

Anno Name and Arms. Place. 

1 Johan. Harsikes. 

Or, a chief indented S. 

2 Steph. de Hales. 

3 Joh. de Mantby. 

4 Will Winter. 

Cheeky, Or and S. a fess Arg. 

5 Will de Kirdeston. 

6 Joh. de Volveston. 

7 Joh. Tudenham. 

8 Andr. Cavendish . . . Cavendish. 

S. three bucks heads cabossed Arg. attired Or. 

9 Rad. Bigot, mil. 

Parti per pale, O. and Vert, a lion ramp. G. 

10 Galf. Michell. 

11 Tho. Corsonn. 

Ermin. a bend compone Arg. and S. 

12 Idem ut prius. 

13 Hugo Fastolfe. 

Quarterly O. and Az. ; on a bend G. three escalops Arg. 

14 Rob. Carbonell. 

15 Johan. Knivett . . . Buckenham. 

Arg. a bend within a border engrailed S. 

16 Will. Winter .... ut prius. 

17 Will. Argente, mil. 

G. three cups covered Arg. 

18 Gilb. Debenham. 

S. a bend betwixt two crescents O. 



SHERIFFS. 477 

Anno Name. Place. 

19 Tho. Corsonn .... ut prius. 

20 Idem ut prius. 

21 Will Rees. 

Arg. three spears heads G. ; chief O. 

22 Idem ut prius. 

HENRY IV. 

1 Joh. Gournay. 

Paleways of six pieces O. and Az. 

2 Joh. Heningham. 

Quarterly, O. and G. a border S. charged with escalop 

shells Arg. 
Edw. Oldhall. 

3 Joh. Inglesthorpe. 

G. a cross engrailed Arg. 

4 Rob. Ramsey. 

G. three rams heads cabossed Arg. 

5 Idem ut prius. 

6 Nic. Winchingham. 

7 Rob. Berney, mil. . . Parkhall R. 

Per pale G. and Erm. a cross engrailed Erm. 

8 Will Rees ut prius. 

9 Rad. Ramsey .... ut prius. 

10 Oliver Groose. 

Quarterly Arg. and Az. on a bend S. three martlets O. 

1 1 Rob. Berney, mil. . . ut prius. 

12 Tho. Lovelf. 

Arg. a chev. Az. betwixt three squirrels seiant G. 

HENRY V. 

1 Edw. Oldhall. 

2 Joh. Heaveningham. . ut prius. 

3 Joh. Spencer. 

Quarterly, Arg. and G. a bend S. in the second and third 
a fret O. 

4 And. Botiller. 

G. a fess componee Arg. and S. betwixt six crosses patee 
fitch e Arg. 

5 Edw. Winter .... ut prius. 

6 Oliv. Groos .... ut prius. 

7 Joh. Fitz Rauf. 

G. a fess vairy. 
8 
9 Idem. 

HENRY VI. 

1 Rob. Clifton, mil. 

S. semee of cinquefoils and a lion ramp. Arg. within a 



478 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

Anno Name. Place. 

border of the first, charged with verdoy of trefoils of the 
second. 

2 Joh. Shardlow. 

Ar. a chevron G. betwixt three croslets Az. 

3 .Bri. Stapilton. 

Az. a lion ramp, queue fourche O. 

4 Oliver Groose . . . . ut prim. 

5 Johan. Tirrey. 

6 Gib. Debenham . . . ut prius. 

7 Hen. Drury, ar. . . . Halsted, S. 

Arg. on a chief Vert the letter Tau betwixt two mullets 
pierced O. 

8 Hen. Dray, ar. 

Az. a fess betwixt two chevrons O. 

9 Joh. Shardlow, m. . . ut prius. 

10 Joh. Ropley. 

1 1 Tho. Thudenham, mil. 

12 Hen. Grey, arm. . . . ut prius. 

13 Joh. Fitz-Rauf . . . ut prius. 

14 Tho. Chambre. 

15 Johan. Hopton. 

Erm. on two bars S. six mullets O. 

16 Joh. Heaveningham . ut prius. 

17 Tho. Brewes. 

Az. semee of croslets and a lion rampant O. 

18 Milo. Stapilton . . . ut prius. 

19 Rog. Chamberlain. 

20 Will. Calthrope. 

Cheeky O. and Az. a fess Erm. 

21 Tho. Brewes . . . . ut prius. 

22 Joh. Fitz-Rauf . . . ut prius. 

23 Joh. Hopton, arm. . . ut prius. 

24 Will. Tirrell. 

Arg. two chev. Az. within a border engrailed G. 

25 Tho. Daniel. 

26 Phil. Wentworth. 

S. a chev. betwixt three leopards heads O. 

27 Egid. St, Loe, arm. 

28 Johan. Gray .... uf prius. 

29 Johan, Germin . . . Rushbroke, Suf. 

S. a crescent betwixt two mullets Arg. 

30 Johan. Clopton. 

S. a bend Arg. betwixt two cotises dancette O. 

31 Tho. Sharnebrone. 

32 Joh. Denston. 

33 Joh. Wingfeld . . . Letheringham. 

Arg. on a bend G. cotised S. three wings of the first. 

34 Joh, Clapton, arm. . . ut prius. 



SHERIFFS. 

Anno Name. Place. 

35 Rich. Bothe, arm. 

Arg. three boars heads erased S. tusked O. 

36 Egid. St. Loe, arm. 

37 Will. Calthorpe . . . ut prius. 

38 Phil. Went worth . . ut prius. 

EDWARD IV. 

1 Tho. Hayward, mil. 

2 Tho. Mountgomery. 

G. a chev. betwixt three flower-de-luces O. 

3 Idem . . . . . . ut prius. 

4 Will. Calthrope, arm. . ut prius. 

5 Alex. Cressener. 

6 Will. Hopton, arm. . . ut prius. 

7 Tho. Mountgomery . . ut prius. 

8 Joh. Twyer. 

9 Hog. Ree, arm. 

10 Joh. Heveningham . . ut prius. 

11 Will. Knivett, at. . . ut prius. 

1 2 Joh. Wingfeld, mil. . ut prius. 

13 Rog. Ree, mil. 

14 Rob. Radliffe. 

15 Joh. Hasting, arm. 

Or. a maunch G. 

16 Will. Calthorp, mil. . ut prius. 

17 Tho. Howard, mil. 

G. a bend betwixt six croslets fitchee Arg. 

18 Rob. Radliffe, arm. 

19 Will. Hopton, arm. . . ut prius. 

20 Will. Knivett, mil. . . ut prius. 

21 Alex. Cressener. 

22 Hen. Wenthworth . . ut prius. 

RICHARD III. 

1 Joh. Wingfeild, arm. . ut prius. 

2 Rad. Willoughby. 
Rich. Pole. 

Per pale O. and S. a saltire engrailed counterchanged. 

3 Johan. Paston. 

Arg. six flower-de-luces Az. a chief indented O. 

HENRY VII. 

1 Johan. Paston . . ut prius. 

2 Edm. Bedingfeld, 

Erm. an eagle displayed G. 

3 Rad. Shelton, mil. 

Az. a cross O. 

4 Rob. Lovell .... ut prius. 



480 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

Anno Name. Place. 

5 Simon. Wiseman. 

S. a chevron Erm. betwixt three cronells of a tilt-spear 

Arg. 

6 Phil. Lewes, arm. 

7 Rob. Brandon, mil, 

Barry of ten Arg. and G.; over all a lion rampant O. 
crowned per pale Arg. of the second. 

8 Joh. Wingfeld, mil. . . ut prius. 

9 Will. Carewe, mil. 

10 Rob. Southwell. 

11 Rog. Le Strange, arm. . Hunstanton. 

G. two lions passant Arg. 

12 Rob. Curson, mil. . . ut prius. 

13 Edw. Arundell, mil. 

14 Phil. Calthrope, mil. . ut prius. 

15 Will. Bolein, mil. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three bulls heads S. armed O. 

16 Hum. Catesby, arm. 

17 Rob. Clere, mil. 

Arg. on a fess Az. three eagles O. 

18 Edw. Jeney, mil. 

19 Idem. 

20 Johan. Shelton . . . ut prius, 

21 Idem ut prius. 

22 Phil. Bothe, mil. . . ut prius. 

23 Rob. Brandon, mil. . . ut prius. 

24 Idem ut prius. . - 

HENRY VIII. 

1 Ric. Wentworth . . ut prius. 

2 Joh. Hevingham . . ut prius. 

3 Rog. Townesend . . Raynham. 

Az. a chevron Erm. betwixt three escalops Arg. 

4 Lio. Talmarsh, arm. . Helmingham. 

Arg. a fret S. 

5 Tho Gibbon, arm. 

O. a lion rampant S. debrused with a bend G. charged 
with three escalops Arg. 

6 Joh. Heydon, mil. 

Quarterly Arg. and G. a cross engrailed counterchanged. 

7 Ant. Wingfeld, mil. . . ut prius. 

8 Ric. Wentworth, mil. . ut prius. 

9 Will. Paston, arm. . . ut prius. 

10 Rog. Townsend, arm. . ut prius. 

11 Joh. Heydon, mil. . . ut prius. 

12 Hum. Wingfeld, arm. . ut prius. 

13 Th. Bedingfeld, mil. . ut prius. 

14 Joh. Shelton, mil. . . ut prius. 



SHERIFFS. 481 

Anno Name. Place. 

15 Joh. Heveningham . . ut prim. 

16 Joh. Heydon, mil. . . ut prius. 

17 Rog. Townsend . . . ut prius. 

18 Fran. Lovell, arm. . . ut prius. 

19 Phil. Filvey, mil. 

20 Will. Paston, mil. . . ut prius. 

21 Edw. Bedingfeld . . ut prius. 

22 Tho. Jermyn, arm. . . ut prius. 

23 Hen. Fermour, mil. 

24 Tho. le Strange, mil. . ut prius. 

25 Tho. Lush, or Rush. 

26 Rich. Southwell. 

27 Walt. Hubard, mil. . . Blickling. 

S. an etoile with eight points betwixt two flanches 
Erm. 

28 Will. Drury, mil. . . ut prius. 

29 Edm. Windham . . . Cowtherk. 

Az. a chev. betwixt three lions heads erased O. 

30 Fran. Lovell, mil. . * ut prius. 

31 Edw. Knivett, mil. . . ut prius. 

32 Will. Fermoure, mil. 

33 Tho. Jermyn, mil. . . ut prius. 

34 Johan. Jermyn, mil. . ut prius. 

35 Fran. Lovell, mil. . . ut prius. 

36 Will. Drury, mil. . . ut prius, 

37 Edw. Windham, mil. . ut prius. 

38 Hen. Hubbard, arm. . ut prius. 

EDWARD VI. 

1 Joh. Robs art, mil. 

Vert, a lion rampant O. vulned in the shoulder. 

2 Nich. le Strange . . . ut prius. 

3 Edm. Windham, mil. . ut prius. 

4 Will. Walgrave. 

Parti per pale Arg. and G. 

5 Joh. Robsat, mil. . . ut pritts. 

6 Tho. Cornwallis . . . Brome, S. 

S. guttee Arg. on a fess of the second three Cornish 
choughs of the first. 

PHILIP. ET MARI. 

1 Tho. Woodhouse . . Kimberley, Norf. 
S. a chevron betwixt three cinquefoils Erm. 

1.2 Joh. Shelton, mil. . . ut prius. 

2.3 Joh. Sulyard, arm. . . SUFFOLK. 

Arg. a chevron G. betwixt three pheons S. 

3.4 Chri. Heydon, mil. . . ut prius. 

VOL. II. 2 I 



482 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

Anno Name. Place. 

4.5 Hen. Doly, mil. 

G. three bucks heads cabossed Arg. 

5.6 Amb. Jermyn, arm. . ut prius. 

ELIZAB. REG. 

1 Joh. Apleyard, arm. . SUFFOLK. 

Az. a chevron O. betwixt three owls Arg. 

2 Rob. Wingfeld, arm, . ut prius. 

3 Tho. Tindall, mil. 

4 Will. Buts, mil. 

5 Tho. Woodhouse . . ut prius. 

6 Owin Hopton, mil. . . ut prius. 

7 Will. Paston, mil. . . ut prius. 

8 Lion. Tailing, arm. 

9 Edw. Clere, arm. . . ut prius. 

10 Will. Walgrave . . . ut prius. 

11 Chri. Heydon, mil. . . ut prius. 

12 Edw. Witipole. 

13 Rad. Shelton, arm. . . ut prius, 

14 Amb. Jermyn, mil. * . ut prius. 

15 Hen. Doly, arm. . . . tit prius. 

16 Tho. Felton, arm. . . Playford. 

G. two lions passant Erm. crowned O. 

HENRY VII. 

14. PHILIP CALTHROPE, Miles. He was a very grave gen 
tleman (and lived to a great age) ; yet withal of a very merry 
and pleasant conceit, whereof take this instance : 

He sent as much cloth of fine French tawny as would make 
him a gown, to a tailor in Norwich. It happened, one John 
Drakes, a shoe-maker, coming into the shop, liked it so well, 
that he went and bought of the same as much for himself, en 
joining the tailor to make it of the same fashion. The knight, 
being informed hereof, commanded the tailor to cut his gown 
as full of holes as his shears could make, which purged J. Drakes 
of his proud humour, that he would never be of the gentleman s 
fashion again. 

HENRY VIII. 

29. EDMUND WINDHAM. He was a gentleman of a fair es 
tate in this county, great birth and alliance (whose grandmother 
was daughter to John Howard duke of Norfolk) ; but, it seems, 
somewhat, given to his passion. This caused him (in the 33rd 
of this king s reign) to strike Master Clere, a gentleman of his 
own county, in the king s tennis-court. For this he \vas ar 
raigned, in the great hall at Greenwich, before Master Gage, 
comptroller of the king s household, and other justices ; and 



WRITERS. 483 

one quest of gentlemen, another of yeomen passed upon him, to 
inquire of the same stripe ; by whom he was found guilty, and 
had judgment to lose his right hand. Then was he brought in 
to solemn execution by Sir William Pickering, knight martial ; 
and, confessing his fault, desired that the kinj, of mercy, would 
be pleased to take his left hand, and spare his right ; for there 
with (said he) I may hereafter be able to do his grace service." 
The king, informed hereof by his justices, granted his full par 
don, neither to lose hand, land, nor goods ; but restored him to 
his liberty. (See more of him in the third of king Edward the 
Sixth.) 

EDWARD VI. 

3. EDMUND WINDHAM, Mil. Of him before in the twenty- 
ninth of king Henry the Eighth. He now made good his former 
promise to the son, which he made to his father, of using his 
right hand in the service of his sovereign ; for in this year Ket s 
rebellion began in this county, which this sheriff endeavoured 
with all his power and policy to suppress, till at last it proved a 
task beyond his strength to perform. 

QUEEN MARY. 

1. THOMAS WOODHOUSE, Mil. Though he be the first of 
his surname whom we meet in our catalogue, I find many of his 
family anciently employed in state affairs. In a manuscript 
collection (extant in the library of Sir Thomas Cotton) of per 
sons summoned to parliament by king Edward the Third, I 
read, 

1. "Rexdilecto Clerico suo Roberto de Woodhouse, archi- 
diacono de Richmund, thesaurario, salutem : Negotia nos et 
statum regni contingentia, &c. vobis mandamus, firmiter injun- 
gentes, quod, omnibus aliis prsetermissis, &c." 

2. John Woodhouse, Esq. was servant, and one of the execu 
tors, to king Henry the Fifth.* 

3. Sir William Woodhouse (near related to our sheriff) was 
vice-admiral of our English fleet at Musselburgh field.f 

4. Philip Woodhouse, Esq. was very active at the taking of 
Cadiz ; and knighted there, for his good service, by the earl of 
Essex. J 

And ever since there hath been a military inclination in this 
family, which hath manifested itself on several occasions. 

* Stow s Chronicle, p. 362. 

t Sir John Hay ward, in the Life of Edward VI. p. 15. 

% Camden s Elizabeth, anno 1596. 



2 i 2 



484 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 



SHERIFFS OF NORFOLK ALONE. 

ELIZ. REG. 

Anno Name and Arms. Place. 

17 Tho. Townsend, arm. . Rainham. 

Az. a chev. Erm. betwixt three escalops Arg. 

18 Drugo Drury, arm. 

Arg. on a chief Vert, the latter Tau betwixt two mullets 
pierced O. 

19 Hen. Weston, mil. 

20 Baing. Gaudy, arm. 

Vert, a tortoise passant Arg. 

21 Tho. Knivett, mil. 

Arg. a bend within a border engrailed S. 

22 Edw. Clere, mil. 

Arg. on a fess Az. three eaglets O. 

23 Arth. Heveningham. 

Quarterly O. and G. a border S. charged with esca- 
lop-shells Arg. 

24 Will. Paston, mil. 

Arg. six flower-de-luces Az. a chief indented O. 

25 Will. Heydon, mil. 

Quarterly, Arg. and G. a cross engrailed counter- 
changed. 

26 Hen. Woodhouse . . Kimbevley. 

S. a chev. betwixt three cinquefoils Erm. 

27 Tho, Hogan. arm. 

Arg. a chev. engrailed vairy. 
Hen. Hogan, arm. . . ut prius. 

O. and G. betwixt three hurts, each charged with three 
lions legs erased Arg. 

28 Nath. Bacon, arm. . . SUFFOLK. 

G. on a chief Arg. three mullets S 

29 Clem. Paston, arm. . . ut prius. 

30 Joh. Peiton, mil. 

S. a cross engrailed O. 

31 Rob. Southwell. 

32 Hen. Dolney, arm. 

33 Milo. Corbett, arm. . . Sprouston. 

O. a raven proper. 

34 Hen. Gaudy, arm. . . ut prius. 

35 Basing. Gaudy, mil. . ut prius. 

36 Phil. Woodhouse . . ut prius. 

37 Tho. Clere, arm. . . . ut prius. 

38 Hum. Guibon, arm. 

O. a lion rampant S. debrused with a bend G. charged 
with three escalops Arg. 

39 Nich. Bacon, mil. . . ut prius. 



SHERIFFS. 485 

Anno Name. Place. 

40 Clem. Spelman, mil. 

S. platee proper, two flaunches Arg. 

41 Nath. Bacon, arm. . . utprius. 

42 Ric. Jenkinson, arm. 

O. two bars gemelles G. betwixt three boars heads and 
necks erased S. 

43 Basen. Gaudy, mil. . . ut prius. 

44 Arth. Hemingham . . utprius. 

45 Edm. Doyley, et 1 Jac. 

G. three bucks j heads cabossed Arg. 

JAC. REG. 

1 Edm. Doyley, arm. . . ut prius. 

2 Hen. Spelman, mil. . . ut prius. 

3 Rad. Hare, mil. 

G. two bars and a chief indented O. 

4 Le Stran. Mordant. 

Arg. a chev. betwixt three etoiles S. 

5 Hen. Gawdy, mil. . . ut prius. 

6 Hamo Le Strange . . Hunstanton. 

G. two lions passant Arg. 

7 Tho. Barney, mil. . . Parkhall R. 

Per pale G. and Erm. a cross engrailed Erm. 

8 Chri. Gawdy, mil. . , ut prius. 

9 Tho. Corbet, arm. . . ut prius. 

10 Tho. Lewer, mil. 

11 Jac. Calthrope, mil. 

Cheeky O. and Az, a fess Erm. 

12 Joh. Heveningham , . utprius, 

13 Ric. Jenkinson, arm. . ut prius, 

14 Aug. Palgrave, mil. 

Az. a lion passant Arg. 

15 Anth. Drury, mil. . . ut prius. 

16 Tho. Holland, mil. 

Az. semee of flower-de-luces ; a lion ramp, guardant Arg. 

17 Hen. Beddingfeld. 

Erm. an eagle displayed G. 

18 Tho. Heirne, mil. 

19 Will. Yelverton, bar. 

Arg. three lioncels rampant G. ; a chief of the second. 

20 Rich. Berney, bar. . . ut prius. 

21 Le Stran. Mordant . utprius. 

22 Tho. Woodhouse . . ut prius. 

CAR. REG. 

1 Tho. Holle, arm. 

O. on a chevron S. three unicorns heads erased Arg. 



486 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

Anno Name. Place. 

2 Car. Le Groose, mil. 

Quarterly, Arg. and Az. on a bend S. three mullets O. 

3 Fran. Gawdy, arm. . . ut prius. 

4 Rob. Gawdy, mil. . . ut prim. 

5 Rog. Townsend, bar. . ut prim. 

6 Fran. Mapes, arm. 

7 Tho. Pettus, arm. . . Recheath. 

G. a fess Arg. betwixt three annulets O . 

8 Jo. Hobart, mil. et bar. Blickling. 

S. an etoile with eight points betwixt two flanches Erm. 

9 Will. Heveningham . . at prius. 

10 Joh. Wentworth . . . ut prius. 

1 1 Edr. Barkham, mil. 

Arg. three pallets G. ; over all a chevron. 

12 Will. Paston, arm. . . ut prius. 

13 Edr. Asteley, arm. 

14 August. Holt, arm. . . ut prius. 
15 

16 

17 Thomas Guibon, mil. . ut prius. 

18 Joh. Coke, arm. 

Parti per pale G. and Az. three eagles displayed Arg. 
19 

20 Valen. Pell, mil. 
21 
22 Tho, Barney, arm. . . ut prius, 

QUEEX ELIZABETH. 

18. DRUGO DRURY, Arm. This Sir Dru, being afterwards 
knighted, was joined in commission with Sir Amias Paulet, to 
keep Mary queen of Scots ; and discharged his dangerous trust 
therein. It moveth me not, that I find both these knights 
branded for Puritans ;* being confident that nick-name, in rela 
tion to them both, was first pronounced through a Popish 
mouth, causelessly offended at their religion. 

KING CHARLES. 

5. ROGER TOWNSEXD, Baronet. He was a religious gen 
tleman, expending his soul in piety and charity ; a lover of 
God, his service, and servants. A grave divine saith most 
truly, "that encroachments on the church are like breaches of 
the seas, a thousand to one if they ever return." t But this 
worthy knight may be said to have turned the tide, restoring 
impropriations to the church, to some hundreds in yearly valua 
tion. He married Mary, daughter and co-heir of Horatio Lord 

Camden s Elizabeth, anno 1584. 

j Mr. Bolton, in his Funeral Notes on Judge Nichols. 



SHERIFFS. 



487 



Vere of Tilbury ; by whom he had Sir Horace, who for his 
worth was deservedly created a baron at the coronation of king 
Charles the Second. 

THE FAREWELL. 

And now being to take my leave of this county, I wish the 
inhabitants thereof may make good use of their so many 
churches, and cross that pestilent proverb, " The nigher to the 
church, the farther from God;" substituting another (which 
will be a happy change) in the room thereof, viz. " The more 
the churches, the more sincere the devotion." 



NORWICH. 

NORWICH is (as you please) either a city in an orchard, or 
an orchard in a city, so equally are houses and trees blended in 
it ; so that the pleasure of the country and populousness of the 
city meet here together. Yet, in this mixture, the inhabitants 
participate nothing of the rusticalness of the one, but altogether 
of the urbanity and civility of the other. 

NATURAL COMMODITIES. 
FLOWERS. 

The Dutch brought hither with them, not only their profit 
able crafts, but pleasureable curiosities. They were the first 
who advanced the use and reputation of flowers in this city. A 
flower is the best-complexioned grass (as a pearl is the best- 
coloured clay) ; and daily it weareth God s livery^ for " He 
clotheth the grass in the field."* Solomon himself is out 
braved therewith, as whose gallantry only was adopted, and on 
theirs innate., and in them. In the morning (when it groweth 
up) it is a lecture of Divine Providence. In the evening (when 
it is cut down Avithered) it is a lecture of human mortality. 

Single flowers, are observed much, sweeter than the double 
ones (poor may be more fragrant in God s nostrils than the 
rich) ; and let florists assign the cause thereof, whether because 
the sun doth not so much dry the intricacies of such flowers 
which are duplicated. 

Great the art in meliorating of flowers ; and the rose of roses 
\rosa mundi] had its first being in this city. As Jacob used an 
ingenious invention to make Laban s cattle speckled or rinff- 
streaked,f so, much the skill in making tulips feathered and 
variegated with stripes of divers colours, 

* Matthew vi. 30. f Genesis xxx. 39. 



488 WORTHIES OF NORWICH. 

In my judgment those flowers carry it clearly, which acquit 
themselves to a double sense, sight and smell ; for though in 
some things it may be true, optlmt quce minimt olent, yet in 
flowers (besides a negation of an ill) the position of a good 
scent is justly required. 

MANUFACTURES. 
STUFFS. 

" It is an ill wind which bloweth no man good." Even 
storms bring wrecks to the admiral. The cruelty of Duke 
d Alva, as it blew the Dutch out of their own, brought them 
into this city, and with them their manufactures, which the Eng 
lish quickly learned from them, until Norwich became the 
staple of such commodities for the whole land. For the nim 
ble woof, its artificial dancing in several postures about the 
standing warp produceth infinite varieties in this kind. 

Expect not I should reckon up their several names, because 
daily increasing, and many of them are binominous, as which, 
when they began to tire in sale, are quickened with a new name. 
In my childhood there was one called stand-far-off (the emblem 
of hypocrisy), which seemed pretty at competent distance, but 
discovered its coarseness when nearer to the eye : also perpe- 
tuano, so called from the lasting thereof, (though but a counter 
feit of the clothes of the Israelites, which endured in the 
Wilderness forty years*), satinisco, ^bombicino, Italiano, &c. 
Comineus saith, that a favourite must have a handsome name 
which his prince may easily call on all occasions ; so a pretty 
pleasing name, complying with the buyer s fancy, much 
befriendeth a stuff in the sale thereof. 

By these means Norwich hath beaten Sudbury out of dis 
tance in the race of trading. Indeed in the starting (the south 
having the better of the north ; and bury, or city, being before 
wich, or vicus, a village) Sudbury had the advantage ; but now 
Norwich is come first to their mark, 

THE BUILDINGS. 

The cathedral therein is large and spacious, though the roof 
in the cloisters be most commended. When, some twenty 
years since, I was there, the top of the steeple was blown 
down; and an officer of the church told me, "that the wind 
had done them much wrong ; but they meant not to put it up ; 
whether the wrong or the steeple, he did not declare. 

Amongst private houses, the duke of Norfolk s palace js the 
greatest I ever saw in a city out of London. Here a covered 
bowling-alley (the first, I believe, of that kind in England) on 
the same token that when Thomas last duke of Norfolk was 
taxed for aspiring (by marriage of the queen) to the crown of 

Deuteronomy xxix. 5. 



BUILDINGS PHYSICIANS. 489 

Scotland, he protested to queen Elizabeth, " that, when he was 
in his bowling-alley at Norwich, he accounted himself as a king 
in Scotland."* 

As for the bishop s palace, it was formerly a very fair 
structure, but lately unleaded, and new covered with tile by the 
purchasers thereof; whereon a wag, not unwittily, 

" Thus palaces are altered ; we saw 
John Leyden, now Wat Tyler, next Jack Straw." 

Indeed there be many thatched houses in the city ; so that 
Luther (if summoned by the emperor to appear in this place) 
would have altered his expression, and said, instead of " tiles of 
the house," that, " if every straw on the roof of the houses were 
a devil, notwithstanding he would make his appearance." 
However, such thatch is so artificially done (even sometimes on 
their chancels) that it is no eye-sore at all to the city. 

PHYSICIANS. 

JOHN GOSLIN, born in this city,f was first fellow, and after 
wards master of Caius College in Cambridge, proctor of 
the university, and twice vice-chancellor thereof: a general 
scholar, eloquent Latinist, a rare physician, in which faculty he 
was regius professor. A strict man in keeping, and magistrate 
in pressing, the statutes of college and university, and a severe 
punisher of the infringers thereof. And here, courteous reader, 
let me insert this pleasant passage (seeing Cato himself may 
sometimes smile) without offence. 

I remember, when this doctor was last vice-chancellor, it was 
highly penal for any scholar to appear in boots, as having more 
of the gallant than civil student therein. Now a scholar under 
took, for a small wager, much beneath the penalty, to address 
himself ocreated unto the vice-chancellor, which was beheld by 
others as a desperate adventure* Carrying his state in his 
urinal, he craved his advice for an hereditary numbness in his 
legs (and something of truth therein), which made him, in his 
habit, to trespass on the university s statutes, to keep them 
warm. The vice-chancellor, pitying instead of punishing him, 
prescribed him his best receipts ; and so, by this fraus honesta, 
he effected his desires. 

This doctor was a worthy benefactor to Catharine hall (to 
which he had no relation, save what his bounty created), be 
stowing thereon the fair Bull Inn, of considerable value. If he 
who giveth a night s lodging to a servant of God shall not lose 
his reward, certainly he that bestoweth inn and all upon the 
sons of the prophets shall find full compensation ; the rather, 
because that hall, pent formerly for lack of ground, and com 
plaining with the sons of prophets, " The place where we dwell, 
is too strait for us," J may now say with Isaac, " The Lord hath 

* Camden s Elizabeth, anno 1569. f Parker, Sceletos Cantabrigise, MS. 

J 2 Kings vi. l. 



490 WORTHIES OF NORWICH. 

made room for us ;"* by this convenient addition. He died in 
his vice-chancellorship, anno 1625. 

JOHN CAIUS, born in this city, son to Robert Caius, was bred 
fellow in Gonvil Hall in Cambridge. Hence he travelled into 
Italy, where he studied much, and wrote several learned treatises ; 
returned home, became physician to queen Mary, and improved 
Gonvil Hall into a college. He bestowed good land on, erected 
fair buildings in, bequeathed thrifty statutes to, produced a pro 
per coat of arms for, and imposed a new name on, this founda 
tion, Gonvil and Caius College. He wrote an excellent book 
of the Antiquity of Cambridge. When king Jarnes passed through 
this college, the master thereof presented him a Caius "De 
Antiquitate Cantabridgiae," fairly bound ; to whom the king said, 
" What shall I do with this book ?" give me rather Caius " De 
Canibus," a work of the same author, very highly praised, but 
very hardly procured. Few men might have had a longer, none 
ever had a shorter epitaph, "Fui CAIUS." 

WRITERS SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

ROBERT WATSON, born in this city, was excellently well 
skilled in the laws, and (saith Bale) " a Dispensatione sive Ad- 
ministratione domestica," (English it as you please) to Arch 
bishop Cranmer. Being imprisoned for his religion, he often 
disputed during his restraint with several Papists, concerning 
transubstantiation ;fand at length, having gained his enlargement, 
wrote a treatise in elegant Latin ( dedicating the same to such who 
with him suffered banishment for their religion), wherein he re- 
lateth the accidents of his life. I cannot attain to any certainty 
in the date of hrs death. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

WILLIAM BAITMAN was born in this city,J bred in Cam 
bridge, and afterwards became first archeacon, and then by king 
Edward the Third made bishop of this his native see. One of a 
high spirit, to maintain the prophet and privileges of his place ; 
and I charitably presume him watchful over his sheep (souls 
subjected to his charge), because he was so careful of his deer; 
for the stealing whereof he enjoined penance to Robert Lord 
Morley, and made him perform them, in the cathedral of Nor 
wich, notwithstanding the king^s threatening letters to the con 
trary. 

This prelate, in his travels beyond the seas, perceiving that 
our English common law was outlawed in those parts, and ap 
prehending the absolute necessity that the English should have 
skill in the canon and civil laws (for the managing of foreign 

* Genesis xxvi. 22. f Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. ix. num. 81. 

J Godwin s Catalogue of the Bishops of Norwich. Idem, ibidem. 



BENEFACTORS. 491 

negociations) erected a college in Cambridge, called Trinity Hall, 
for the study thereof. As he was father to Trinity, he was foster- 
father to Gonvil Hall, in the same university, removing it to a 
more convenient place, building, and settling the revenues 
thereof, according to the will of the founder. King Edward the 
Third, resolving to follow his title to the crown of France, sent 
this bishop to the Pope, to acquaint him with his intentions, in 
which embassage he died, at Avignon, 1354. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

THOMAS LEGG was born in this city ;* bred first fellow in 
Trinity, then Jesus College in Cambridge, until he was chosen 
by doctor Caius (then surviving) the nineteenthf master of 
Gonvil Hall, and the second of Gonvil and Caius College. He 
was doctor of the law and Arches, one of the masters of the 
Chancery, twice vice-chancellor of the university, and thirty- 
four years master of his college therein. There needeth no 
other testimony for to avouch his great learning, than the cha 
racter given him by J. Lipsius, in his (hitherto unprinted) 
Epistle, " In Antiquitatis studio tarn egregie versatus es, ut id 
de teipso potes quod de se Apollo Enni : A me omnes Canta- 
brigienses consilium expetunt in literis incerti, quos ego, mea 
ope, ex incertis certos, compotesque consilii dimitto/ J 

This doctor, though himself a serious man, used to recreatehim- 
self with delightful studies, observing gravity in his very plea 
sures. He composed a tragedy of the destruction of Jerusalem ; 
and having at last refined it to the purity of the public standard, 
some plagiary filched it from him, just as it was to be acted. 
He formerly had made a tragedy of the life of king Richard the 
Third, presented with great applause (queen Elizabeth, I sup 
pose, being a beholder thereof) in Saint John s College Hall. 
On the same token that John Palmer (afterwards dean of Peter 
borough) who acted king Richard therein, had his head so pos 
sessed with a prince-like humour, that ever after he did what then 
he acted, in his prodigal expences ; so that (the cost of a sove 
reign illbefitting the purse of a subject) he died poor in prison, not 
withstanding his great preferment. 

Great the bounty of doctor Legg unto his college, bequeathing 
600 pounds for the building of the east part thereof; besides 
several lesserliberalities. Yea, be it remembered, that after Thomas 
Bacon, fifteenth master of the college, had been a malefactor 
thereunto, leaving it much indebted, the four succeeding mas 
ters (ill examples avoided do good) doctor Caius, Legg, Branth- 
waite, Gosling, (all natives of Norwich) were signal benefactors; 
though masters of, but stewards for, the house ; making it, for 
the main, their heir at their decease. Doctor Legg died July 
12, 1607, in the 7^nd year of his age. 

* Ex Annalibus Coll. Gonv. et Caii. 

t In Sceletoa Cantabrigise, he is accounted but the 1 7th. 



492 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 



THE FAREWELL. 

I heartily wish that this city may long flourish in its full 
lustre. In tendency whereunto, may the thatch of all their 
houses, by Divine Providence, be effectually secured from the 
merciless element of fire (as which knoweth not to be a king, 
but must be tyrant), whose furious raging is seldom bounded, 
unless by the want of fuel to feed on ! Yea, may their straw 
in due time advance into tile, that thereby their houses may for 
the future be better fenced for another element ; I mean the 
injury of wind and rain. 



WORTHIES OF NORFOLK WHO HAVE FLOURISHED SINCE THE 

TIME OF FULLER. 

Thomas ALLEN, author and nonconformist divine ; born at 

Norwich 1608; died 1673. 
Joseph AMES, historian and typographical antiquary ; born at 

Yarmouth 1688-9; died 1759. " 
William BELOE, divine, critic, and translator of Herodotus; 

bom at Norwich 1758; died 1817. 

Robert BRADY, historian and learned physician ; born at Den 
ver; died 1700. 
Edward BROWNE, physician to Charles II. president of the 

College, Norwich ; born at Norwich 1642; died 1708. 
Sir William BROWNE, popular physician and author; born near 

Lynn 1692; died 1774. 
Sir Charles BURNEY, learned Grecian, and critic; born at Lynn 

1757; died 1817. 

William CAPON, antiquarian draughtsman and scene-painter; 
^ born at Norwich 1757 ; died 1827. 
Thomas CHESTERTON, physician and nonconformist divine; 

born at Downham 1715 ; died 1770. 
Samuel CLARKE, divine and philosopher; born at Norwich 

1675 ; died 1729. 
John Henry COLLS, poet and dramatist ; born at Letheringset 

1764; died 1823. 
John COSIN, bishop of Durham, learned author and benefactor ; 

born at Norwich 1595 ; died 1672. 
William D OYLEY, divine and philanthropist; born at Bergh- 

Apton 1745; died 1814. 

Anthony ELLYS, bishop of St. David s, author; born at Yar- 
^ mouth 1690; died 1761, 
Sir John FENN, antiquary, publisher of " Paston Letters ;" 

born at Norwich 1739 ; died 1794. 
Lady FENN, wife of Sir John, authoress of works for the 



WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 493 

instruction of youth under the name of Mrs. Lovechild; 

born at East Dereham; died 1814. 

Robert FORBY, divine, author of the " Vocabulary of East 
^ Anglia;" born at Stoke; died 1825. 

Sir Andrew FOUNTAINS, antiquarian collector and numis 
matist, friend of Pope and Swift; bom at Narford 1675; 

died 1753. 
John FRANSHAM, " the Norwich polytheist," author; born at 

Norwich 1730; died 1810. 
Thomas GIRDLESTONE, physician and translator of Anacreon; 

born at Holt 1758 ; died 1820. 
Timothy GOODWIN, archbishop of Cashel; born at Norwich 

1696; died 1729. 
Luke HANSARD, printer of the House of Commons; born at 

Norwich 1752; died 1828. 
Thomas HARMER, dissenter, orientalist, and biblical critic; 

born at Norwich 1715 ; died 1788. 
Henry HEADLEY, poet, critic, and editor of Ancient Poetry; 

born at Irstead 1/66; died 1788. 
Thomas HERRING, archbishop of York and Canterbury; born 

at Walsoken 1691 ; died 1757. 
James HOOKE, musical composer; born at Norwich 1746; died 

1813. 
Thomas HOWES, divine and author; born at Mourningthorpe 

1729; died 1814. 
William HURN, divine and poet; bora at Hockham; died 

1829. 
Dr. Benjamin IBBOT, ingenious and learned writer and divine ; 

born at Beachamwell 1680; died 1725. 
John IVES, antiquary and author; born at Yarmouth 1750; 

died 1776. 

Edward JERNINGHAM, poet; born 1727; died 1812. 
Sir Benjamin KEENE, statesman, ambassador to Spain; born 

at Lynn Regis 1697 ; died 1757. 
Edmund KEENE, brother of the above, bishop of Ely, " the 

builder of palaces ;" born at Lynn Regis 1714 ; died 1781. 
Henry KETT, scholar and divine; born at Norwich 1761 ; died 

1826. 
Edward KING, Pres, A.S., author of Munimenta Antiqua ;" 

born at Norwich 1734 ; died 1807. 
John Glen KING, author of " Rites of the Greek Church ;" 

born 1732; died 1787. 
John LENG, bishop of Norwich, editor of Aristophanes ; born 

1665; died 1727. 
Sir Roger L ESTRANGE, political and miscellaneous writer ; 

born at Hunstanton hall 1616 ; died 1704. 
Roger LONG, mathematician, astronomer, and divine ; born at 

Croxton Park, near Thetford, 1680 ; died 1770. 



494 WORTHIES OF NORFOLK. 

Thomas MARTIN, " honest Tom Martin," antiquary and histo 
rian of his native town; born at Thetford 1696; died 1771- 

Horatio NELSON, Viscount, hero of the Nile and Trafalgar; 
born at Burnham Thorpe 1758 ; died 1805. 

Sir William NELSON, Clarencieux king-at-arms, antiquary; 
born at Aslacton 1592 ; died 1661. 

Thomas PAINE, deist and republican, author of Rights of 
Man," &c. ; born at Thetford 1737 ; died 1809. 

John PEARSON, bishop of Chester, expositor of the Creed; 
born at Creak or Snoring 1612-13 ; died 1686. 

Richard PEARSON, brother of the bishop, traveller and Grecian 
scholar; born at Creak; died 1670. 

Richard PORSON, critic and Greek scholar; born at East Rus- 
ton 1759; died 1808. 

William RAWLEIGH, editor of Bacon s works ; born at Norwich 
about 1588; died 1667. 

James SAYERS, satirical poet and caricaturist; born at Yar 
mouth; died 1823. 

Frank SAYERS, physician, poet, and metaphysician; died 

1817- 

Thomas SHADWELL, poet-laureat, dramatist, and historiogra 
pher; bora at Stanton-hall or Weeting, about 1640; died 

1692. 
Sir Cloudesley SHOVEL, admiral; born at Cockley Cley or 

Cockthorpe 1650; drowned 1708. 
Sir James Edward SMITH, founder and president ^of the Lm- 

nsean Society; born at Norwich 1759; died 1828. 
Benjamin STILLINGFLEET, naturalist and poet; born at VV ood 

Norton 1700; died 1771. v 

Henry SWINDEN, historian of his native town; born at Yar 
mouth ; died 1772. 
George first Marquis TO\VNSHEND, general and statesman ; born 

1723-4; died 1807. 
Horatio W T ALPOLE, Lord Walpole of Woolterton, states- 

i. an, brother to Sir Robert; born at Houghton 1678; 

died 1757. 
Sir Robert WALPOLE, first Earl of Orford, statesman ; born at 

Houghton 1676; died 1745. 
Lord Chief Justice WALSINGHAM, of the Common Pleas; born 

at Merton 1719 ; died 1781. 
Henry WHARTON, divine, author of " Anglia Sacra;" born at 

Worstead 1664; died 1694-5. 
Thomas Dunham WHITAKER, divine, antiquary, and historian; 

born at Rainham 1759; died 1821. 
William WELKINS, architect, author of an essay on Norwich 

Castle ; born at Norwich about 1747* 

Robert WOODHOUSE, mathematician, author of the " Princi 
ples of Analytical Calculation," &c. ; born at Norwich ; died 

1827. 



WORKS RELATIVE TO NORFOLK. 495 

V Since the time of Dr. Fuller the county of Norfolk has been successful in 
its topographical historians. In 1698, Sir H. Spelman published his " Icena sive 
JNprfolcise descnptio topographic*! ;" and in 1789 appeared a History of the Countv 
of Norfolk, by the Rev. F. Blomefield, and the Rev. C. Parkin; which was re 
Published m 1 1 vols. 8vo. in 1805. Other Works have been subsequently produced 
by Matchett and by Cotman. In 1816, Mr. Britton brought out a History of the 
See and Cathedral of Norwich ; some partial notices having been published bv Sir 
T. Browne so early as 1712 Several Histories of Yarmouth have also been produced 
by various authors, viz. by H. Swinden (177-2) ; by the Rev. C. Parkin (1776 bv 
the Rev. R. Turner, and by J. Preston (1819) ; and by J. H. Druery ( 1826) Hi, 
tones of King s Lynn, by B. Mackerell (1788), and by W. Richards fl812l 
Histories of Thetford, Holkham, &c., have also made their appearance -E D 



NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 



NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, being a long narrow inland county, is 
stretched from north-east to south-west, and bordereth on more 
counties than any other in England, being nine in number ; viz. 
on the east, 1. Cambridgeshire; 2. Huntingdonshire ; on 
the west, 3. Warwickshire ; on the north, 4. Lincolnshire ; 
5. Rutland; 6. Leicestershire; on the south, 7- Bedford 
shire ; 8. Buckinghamshire ; 9. Oxfordshire. 

It is as fruitful and populous as any in England, inso 
much that sixteen several towns with their churches have 
at one view been discovered therein by my eyes, which I 
confess none of the best; and God grant that those who 
are sharper-sighted may hereafter never see fewer !* 

Sure I am there is as little waste ground in this, as in 
any county in England (no mosses, mears, fells, heaths (whiter- 
ing, but a beauty-spot), which elsewhere fill so many shires with 
much emptiness); Northamptonshire being an apple, with 
out core to be cut out, or rind to be pared away. 

Northamptonshire challengeth that all the rivers running 
through or by it are its natives, as bred in it (which argueth 
the elevation and height of the ground thereof), which I 
believe no other county in England can say. Besides, it lend- 
eth two considerable rivers, Avon to Warwick, and Cherwell to 
Oxfordshire. 

The language of the common people is generally the best of 
any shire in England. A proof whereof, when a boy, I received 
from a hand-labouring man herein, which since hath convinced 
my judgment : " We speak, I believe," said he, " as good Eng 
lish as any shire in England, because, though in the sing 
ing psalms, some words are used to make the metre unknown 
to us, yet the last translation of the Bible, which no doubt was 
done by those learned men in the best English, agreeth per 
fectly with the common speech of our country." 

Know, reader, that doctor Bowie, my worthy friend, and 
most skilful botonographist, hath taken notice of a heath in 
this county nigh to Stamford, whereof he giveth this commen- 

* Other men hnve discovered two and thirty F. 



NATURAL COMMODITIES. 497 

dation, "as fine a place for variety of rare plants as ever 
I beheld;"* who, I am sure, hath seen, in this king, as 
much, both here and beyond the seas, as any of his age and 
profession. 

NATURAL COMMODITIES. 

Now though this shire shares as largely as any in those pro 
fits which are general to England, grass, corn, cattle, &c. ; yet 
it is most eminent for 

SALT-PETRE. 

In Latin Sal petras, rather so called because " exudat e pe- 
tris," (it usually sweats out of rocks), than because it is 
wrought up at the last to a rocky or a stony consistency. 
Some conceive it utterly unknown to the ancients, which learn 
ed Hoffman will not allow, only it was disguised unto them, 
under the name of Sal nitrum, though our modern use was un 
known to them, that Pulvis nitrosus, or gunpowder, might 
be made thereof. It is v<^\wy<r-oe, what will easily take fire, 
the best test of the goodness thereof. 

But why is salt-petre (common to all counties) insisted on in 
Northamptonshire ? Because, most thereof is found in dove- 
houses, and most dove-houses in this great corn county. Yet 
are not those emblems of innocency guilty in any degree 
of those destructions, which are made by that which is made 
thereof. All that I will add of salt-petre is this : I have read 
in a learned writerf that " Salt-petre-men, when they have ex 
tracted salt-petre out of a floor of earth one year, within three or 
four years after they find more generated there, and do work it 



over again." 



PIGEONS. 

These of all fowls live most sociably in a commonwealth to 
gether, seeing their government is not, as bees, monarchical. 
They are generally reported \vithout gall ; understand it, their 
gall is not sequestered into a distinct vessel, as in other crea 
tures. Otherwise we find the effects thereof in their animosi 
ties among themselves (whose bills can peck as well as kiss) as 
also (if their crops be not clearly drawn) in the bitterness of 
their flesh. They are most swift in flight, and the steerage of 
their tails conduceth much to their steady mounting upright. 
An envious man, having caught his neighbour s pigeons ir, 
a net, feeding on his stack, plucked off their tails, and let them 
go ; which, though they could fly forward home, yet were soon 
after found dead in the dove-cote, famished for want of food, as 
unable to fly up perpendicularly, and so out at the louver. 

Pigeons, against their wills, keep one Lent for seven weeks in 

* Phytologia Britannica, p. 82. f Dr. Jorden, of Mineral Baths, c. 11. 

VOL. II. 2 K 



498 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

the year, betwixt the going out of the old, and growing up of 
the new, grain. Probably, our English would be found as doci- 
ble and ingenious as the Turkish pigeons, which carry letters 
from Aleppo to Babylon, if trained up accordingly. But such 
practices, by these wing-posts, would spoil many a foot-post 
living honestly by that painful vocation. 

I find a grievous indictment drawn up against the poor 
pigeons for felony, as the grand plunderers of grain in this land. 
My author, computing six and twenty thousand dove-houses in 
England and Wales,* and allowing five hundred pair in each 
house, four bushels yearly for each pair, hath mounted the an 
nual waste they make to an incredible sum. And, if the 
moiety of his proportions hold true, doves may be accounted 
the causers of death, and justly answer their etymology in 
Hebrew, Jonah, which is deduced from a root, signifying 
to spoil or to destroy. The advocates for pigeons plead, that 
they pick up such loose corn which otherwise would be lost, 
and uselessly trodden into the earth ; that probably Divine Pro 
vidence, which feedeth the fowls, by some natural instinct 
directeth them to such grain which would be barren and fruit 
less; that their dung, incredibly fruitful for the manuring 
of ground, abundantly recompenseth the spoil done by them. 

However, if pigeons be guilty of so great stealth, they satisfy 
the law for the same, being generally killed for man s meat ; 
and a corrected pigeon (let blood under both wings) is both 
pleasant and wholesome nourishment. 

THE MANUFACTURES. 

This county can boast of none worth naming, whereof this 
the reason; sufficient the fruitfulness thereof in corn, grass 
(and what not, necessary for nature ?) for its plentiful subsist- 
ance. The elder brother who hath the inheritance of his own 
to maintain him, need not be bound an apprentice, let the 
younger turn tradesman, and enlarge his narrow portion by his 
industry. It is enough for Northamptonshire to sell their wool, 
whilst that other countries make cloth thereof. I speak not 
this (though it be my native country) to praise Northampton 
shire men for not using, but that Northamptonshire men may 
praise God for not needing, manufactures. However, the town 
of Northampton may be said to stand chiefly on other men s 
legs ; where (if not the best) the most and cheapest boots and 
stockings are bought in England.f 

I am credibly informed by a good friend, that the manufac 
ture of clothing hath, by prudent and able persons, been endea 
voured effectually (understand me, in design, not success) in 
this county ; and yet (though fine their wool) their cloth ran 

Samuel Hartlib, of Husbandry, his Legacy, p. 227. 

The county of Northampton is still famous for its manufactory of boots and 
shoes. ED. 



BUILDINGS. 499 

so coarse, it could not be sold without loss. Thus God hath 
innated every country with a peculiar genius ; and when art 
crosseth nature, neither succeed ; but both exceed where both 
concur. 

BUILDINGS. 

As Saint Peter hath the primacy of all the other Apostles, so 
the cathedral dedicated unto him in this county challengeth the 
precedency of all in England, for a majestic western front of 
columel work. But, alas ! this hath lately felt the misfortune 
of other fabrics in this kind. Yea, as in a gangrene one mem 
ber is cut off to preserve the rest ; so I understand the cloisters 
of this cathedral were lately plucked down, to repair the body 
thereof; and am heartily glad God in his mercy hath restored 
the only remedy (I mean its lands) for the cure thereof, 

As for civil structures, Holdenby-house lately carried away the 
credit, built by Sir Christopher Hatton, and accounted by him 
the last monument of his youth. If Florence be said to be a city 
so fine that it ought not to be shown but on holidays, Holdenby 
w T as a house which should not have been shown but on Christmas- 
day. But, alas ! Holdenby-house is taken away, being the em 
blem of human happiness, both in the beauty and brittleness, 
short flourishing, and soon fading thereof. Thus one demolish 
ing hammer can undo more in a day than ten edifying axes 
can advance in a month. 

Next is Burleigh-house nigh Stamford, built by William Lord 
Cecil. Who so seriously compareth the [late] state of Hol 
denby and Burleigh, will dispute with himself, whether the 
offices of the lord chancellor or treasurer of England be of 
greater revenues ; seeing Holdenby may be said to show the 
seal, and Burleigh the purse, in their respective magnificence, 
proportionable to the power and plenty of the two great officers 
that built them. 

Withorpe must not be forgot (the least of noble houses, and 
best of lodges), seeming but a dim reflection of Burleigh, 
whence it is but a mile distant. It was built by Thomas Cecil 
earl of Exeter, " to retire to," as he pleasantly said, " out of 
the dust, whilst his great house of Burleigh was a sweeping." 

Castle Ashby, the noble mansion of the earl of Northampton, 
succeeds, most beautiful before a casual fire deformed part 
thereof. But, seeing fire is so furious a plunderer, that it giveth 
whatsoever it taketh not away, the condition of this house is 
not so much to be condoled, as congratulated. 

Besides these, there be many others, no county in England 
yielding more noblemen ; no noblemen in England having 
fairer habitations. And although the freestone, whereof they 
be built, keepeth not so long the white innocence, as brick doth 
the blushing modesty thereof; yet, when the fresh lustre is 
abated, the full state thereof doth still remain. 

2 K 2 



500 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 



THE WONDERS. 

There is within the demesnes of Boughton (the barony of 
the right honourable Edward Lord Montague) a spring which is 
conceived to turn wood into stone. The truth is this, the cold 
ness of the water incrustateth wood (or what else falleth into it) 
on every side with a stony matter, yet so that it doth not tran 
substantiate wood into stone ; for the wood remaineth entire 
within, until at last wholly consumed, which giveth occasion to 
the former erroneous relation. The like is reported of a well 
in Candia, with the same mistake, that " quicquid incidit lapi- 
descit." But I have seen, in Sidney College in Cambridge, a 
skull brought thence, which was candied over with stone, within 
and without, yet so as the bone remained entire in the middle, 
as by a casual breach thereof did appear. This skull was sent 
for by king Charles ; and whilst I lived in the house, by him 
safely again returned to the college, being a prince as desirous 
in such cases to preserve others propriety, as to satisfy his own 
curiosity. 

MEDICINAL WATERS. 
WELLINGBOROUGH-WELL. 

Some may conceive it called Wellingborough, from a sove 
reign well therein anciently known, afterwards obstructed with 
obscurity, and re-discovered in our days. But Master Camden 
doth marr their mart, avouching the ancient name thereof 
Wedlingburough. However, thirty years since, a water herein 
grew very famous, insomuch that queen Mary lay many 
weeks thereat. What benefit her majesty received by the 
spring here, I know not. This I know, that the spring received 
benefit from her majesty ; and the town got credit and profit 
thereby. But it seems all waters of this kind have (though far 
from the sea) their ebbing and flowing ; I mean in esteem. It 
was then full tide with Wellingborough-well, which ever since 
hath abated, and now I believe is at low water in its repu 
tation. 

PROVERBS. 

" The mayor of Northampton opens oysters with his dagger."] 
This town being eighty miles from the sea, sea-fish may be 
presumed stale therein. Yet have I heard that oysters (put up 
with care, and carried in the cool) were weekly brought, fresh 
and good, to Althorp, the house of the lord Spencer, at equal 
distance. Sweeter, no doubt, than those oysters commonly 
carried over the Alps, well nigh 300 miles, from Venice to 
Vienna, and there reputed (far-fetched and dear-bought) dain 
ties to great persons, though sometimes very valiant their 
savour. Nor is this a wonder, seeing Pliny tells us, that our 
English oysters did " Romanis culinis servire," (serve the 



PROVERBS PRINCES. 501 

kitchens of Rome) ; pickled as some suppose, though others 
believe them preserved by an ingenions contrivance (epicures 
bear their brains in their bowels); and some conceive them 
carried in their shells. But, seeing one of their own emperors 
gave for his motto, " Bonus odor hostis, me^ior civis occisi ;" 
(good is the smell of an enemy, but better the smell of a citizen 
of Rome killed) ; I say unto such a Roman nose, stinking may 
be better than sweet oysters ; and to their palates we ll leave 
them. 

" He that must eat a buttered fagot, let him go to Northampton."] 

Because it is the dearest town in England for fuel, where no 
coals can come by water, and little wood doth grow on land. 
Camden saith of this county in general, that it is " silvis, nisi 
in ulteriori et citeriori parte, minus Isetus." And if so when he 
wrote, fifty years since, surely it is less woody in our age. 

What reformation of late hath been made in men s judgments 
and manner, I know not ; sure I am, that deformation hath 
been great in trees and timber : who verily believe that the 
clearing of many dark places, where formerly plenty of wood, 
is all the new light this age produced. 

Pity it is no better provision is made for the preservation of 
woods, whose want will be soonest for our fire, but will be sad 
dest for our water, when our naval walls shall be decayed. 
Say not that want of wood will put posterity on witty inven 
tions for that supply, seeing he is neither a pious nor prudent 
parent, who spends his patrimony on design that the industry 
and ingenuity of his son may be quickened thereby. 

PRINCES. 

ELIZABETH, daughter of Sir Richard WOODE VILL, by the Lady 
Jaquet his wife (formerly the relict of John duke of Bedford) 
was born at Grafton Honour in this county ; in proof whereof, 
many strong presumptions may be produced.* Sure I am, if 
this Grafton saw her not first a child, it beheld her first a queen, 
when married to king Edward the Fourth. 

This Elizabeth was widow to Sir John Grey, who lost his life 
for the house of Lancaster ; and petitioned king Edward to 
take off the sequestration from her jointure. 

Beauty is a good solicitress of an equal suit, especially where 
youth is to be the judge thereof. The king fell much enamoured 
of her feature ; whilst the lady put herself into a chaste posture, 
and kept a discreet distance, neither forward to accept, nor fro- 
ward to decline, his favour. 

She confessed herself too worthless to be his wife, yet pleaded 
too worthy to be his wanton j till at last the king was content 
to take her upon her own terms, though a widow, and his sub 
ject. She got more greatness than joy, height than happiness, 

The Woodvils had formerly, for four generations, lived at Grafton, a s appears 
by the Lieger-book of Pipwell Abbey. 



502 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

by her marriage; her husband keeping company with others for 
his pleasure, her for posterity. Nor was it long before the tem 
pest of his lust drave him to another Shore, which had a greater 
share in his affections. 

This lady lived to see the death of her husband, murder of her 
two sons, restraint of herself and rest of her children. And 
though her condition was altered and bettered by the marriage 
of her eldest daughter to king Henry the Seventh, yet that cun 
ning king (who always weighed his love in the balance of po 
licy) was not over-dutiful to her, nor over-loving to her daugh 
ter. She died anno Domini 14. .. 

But her memory is most remarkable to posterity for finishing 
Queen s College in Cambridge (wherein I had my first breeding ; 
and for it, and all therein, shall ever have an unfeigned affection) ; 
begun by queen Margaret (wife to king Henry the Sixth) an 
implacable enemy to her husband, so that the two houses of 
Lancaster and York had their first amity in that foundation ; a 
a comfortable presage, that in process of time they should be 
publicly and effectually united. 

RICHARD PLANTAGENET, son to Richard Plantagenet duke 
of York, was born at Fotheringhay castle in this county. He 
was somewhat rumpled in his mother s womb (which caused his 
crooked back) : otherwise handsome enough for a soldier. Ajax 
and Ulysses, valour and eloquence, met in his person, having as 
well a tongue to flatter, as an arm to fight. 

He compassed the crown by cruelty, and the killing of his 
nephews, the two sons of king Edward the Fourth. When king, 
he made good laws, which never procured him the people s love, 
as who beheld vice for his native colour, and virtue for his 
painted complexion, on design to make himself popular. 

He lost the crown and his life in the battle of Bosworth ; 
where it may be verified of him, what Livy saith of Hannibal 
when beaten by Scipio, that " in that fight he performed all the 
offices of a wise general and valiant soldier ; only fortune did 
not befriend him." 

If any except that king Richard in this battle was too prodi 
gal of his own person, engaging it too far for a general ; his con 
dition did excuse him herein, with whom it was all one, to die 
as to survive success. His memory hath since met with a mo 
dern pen,* who hath not only purged, but praised, it to the 
height ; f and pity it is, that so able an advocate had not a more 
meriting person to his client. He was slain anno Domini 1435. 

KATHARINE PARR, daughter to Sir Thomas Parr, and last 
wife to king Henry the Eighth, may probably be presumed a 

* George Buck, Esquire. 

t King .Richard has since found another able advocate in the Hon. Horace Wal- 
pcle, afterwards earl of Orford. ED. 



SAINTS. 503 

native of this shire. However, to prevent cavils, we resign her 
over to Westmoreland, where (God willing) we shall meet with 

her character. 

SAINTS. 

WERBURGH was daughter to Wolpher prince of Mercia, who 
had his chief palace of residence * at Wedon in the Street in 
this county, which place her father bestowed on her for her por 
tion. She was bred a nun, under Saint Audery her aunt, and 
abbess at Ely, until such time that she was able, of herself, to 
go alone without leading, in a monastical life. Returning to 
Wedon, she turned that place, which had been her father s pa 
lace, into a monastery. 

Besides Wedon, she had the inspection of two other monas 
teries, Trekingham in Lincolnshire, and Hamburge, noted by 
my authorf near Ely in Cambridgeshire, though no such place 
appear in any modern maps or catalogue. She parted herself, 
whilst living, successively betwixt these three places ; but on her 
death-bed, commanded her body to be buried at Hamburge, 
when, contrary to her will, it was carried to the monastery of 
Trekingham, and the gates thereof fast locked, and carefully 
watched, to keep so great a treasure. 

Reader, if the day be as long with thee when thou readest, as 
it w r as with me when I wrote, the ensuing story, time may the 
better be afforded for the perusal thereof. My author J pro 
ceeds : 

" But see a wonder." [It were well if we could see ; whereas 
now, by his leave, we do but hear it.] " They which were ap 
pointed to watch the same fell into a deep sleep, so as the peo 
ple of Hamburge coming in the night for the body, the gates, 
both of the monastery and church, were opened themselves with 
out men s hands ; and, taking it away without any resistance, 
they interred it at Hamburge, as before her death she requested. 
Wonder not they were so ambitious for her body ; for, as 
Werburgh was her name, which by a great antiquary || is inter 
preted the keeper or conserver of a burgh or town, so all pre 
sumed she would prove a tutelary patroness to the place which 
possessed her body : seeing some have reported, that she hath 
miraculously driven away all geese from Wedon, that they shall 
destroy no grain thereabout.^ If this be true, then, as a certain 
Jupiter amongst the heathens was called Jupiter ATTO /ZIXOC, Jupi 
ter the flic-flapper,** who drave away those offensive insects, let 
this saint hereafter be termed Werbura ATJ-O^VIOC, the chaser 



* Camclen s Britannia, in this county. 

f The English Martyrology, in the third day of February. J Idem, ibidem. 

Mr. Nichols says that this is an error in the original from which Dr. Fuller cites 
the passage. According to Nasmith s Tanner, the place intended was probably 
Romburc or Rumburgh, a small Benedictine cell in Suffolk. ED. 

II R. Verstegan, p. 212. 

<f " Cujus miracula in fugandis hinc anseribus, scriptores creduli decantarunt." 
Camden s Britannia, in Northamptonshire, ** Apud Pausaniam, in Eliacis. 



504 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

away of noisome geese, which spoil grain, grass, and water, 
where they come. She died anno Domini 675. Her body was 
afterwards taken up, and translated to Chester, where Hugh Lu 
pus, somewhat after the Conquest, built the fair monastery of 
Saint Werburgh s to her memory, converted into a cathedral by 
king Henry the Eighth. 

MARTYRS. 

This county affordeth no Marian martyrs, thanks be to a good 
and gracious God ; a meek and moderate man, David Pool, bi 
shop of Peterborough ; whom I here mention the more willingly, 
not knowing where to fix his nativity. However, " Unus Homo 
nobis." 

One martyr we had j not chargeable on the bishop, but his 
bloody archdeacon s account; John Curd, of Syrsam, a shoe 
maker, burnt in Northampton.* 

As for Augustine Dudley, parson of Castor, though some of 
his family credibly informed me that he was martyred, yet, 
on inquiry, his sufferings amounted not to loss of life ; and 
therefore the less wonder that they escaped the drag-net of Mas 
ter Fox s diligence. 

CARDINALS. 

HENRY CHICHLEY was born at Higham Ferrers, in this 
county ; and, by the author of te Antiquitates Britannicee " is 
avouched, made cardinal by the title of Saint Eusebius. But 
because this appeareth not in his epitaph on his tomb (wherein 
an exact inventory of all his dignities) the truth thereof is justly 
suspected ; and I reserve his character, to be ranked amongst 
the " Benefactors to the Public." 

PRELATES. 

RICHARD ADAM of NORTHAMPTON. We compound them 
for several reasons : First, because natives of the same town. 
Secondly, both going over into Ireland, there became bishops of 
the same see. Thirdly, because the history of them is, singly, 
so slender it cannot subsist alone ; though, twisted together, it 
is possible that their memories may support one the other ; for 
we have nothingmore of them than the dates of their consecrations 
and deaths. The former, consecrated bishop of Fernose, October 
the 13th, 1282, died anno 1304.t The latter, consecrated 1322, 
died October the 29th, 1346, having first seen his cathedral 
church burnt and destroyed by the rebels.J 

WILLIAM le Zoucn, son to lord Zouch, was born at 

Haringworth in this county ; as a branch of that honourable 

Fox, Acts and Monuments, anno 1557. 
r Sir James Ware, de Prsesulibus Lagentioe, page 58. 
% Idem, p. 59. 



PRELATES. 505 

family,* still alive, and critical in their pedigrees, hath credibly 
informed me. From dean he became archbishop of York, 1342. 
King Edward the Third, going over to France, committed the 
north to the care of this prelate. Soon after, David king of 
Scots, with a great army, invaded it ; he promised himself Cae 
sar s success, to come and conquer, see and subdue ; the rather 
because he believed that, the flower of the English chivalry being 
gone into France, only priests and peasants were left behind. 
Our archbishop, with such forces as he could suddenly provide, 
bid him battle at Durham, on Saint Luke s eve ; whereon the 
Scotch king found such a. fast, he had little list to feast the day 
following, being routed and taken prisoner. Hence a poet 
of that age, 

" Est pater invictus, sicco de stipite dictus :" 

Zouch in French signifying the dry stump of a stick. However, 
his honourable family nourished as a green tree for many years, 
till withered in our memory, when Edward the last lord Zouch 
died, without issue niale, in the beginning of king Charles. 

To return to our prelate ; he began a beautiful chapel on the 
south side of his cathedral, intending to be interred therein ; but 
dying before the finishing thereof, was buried before the altar of 
Saint Edmund, 1352. 

ROBERT BRAYBROOKE was born at a village in this county, 
well known for the carcass of a castle therein. He was conse 
crated bishop of London, January 5, 1381 ; and afterwards, for 
sis months, was chancellor of England. He died 1404, being 
buried under a marble-stone in the chapel of Saint Mary; 
which is all we can recover of this prelate ; and if it be enough 
to satisfy the reader s hunger, he need not leave anything for 
manners in the dish. 

LIONELL WYDEVILL, or WOODVILL, was born at Grafton 
(since called Grafton-Honor) in this county; bred in the uni 
versity of Oxford, whereof for a time he was chancellor ; then 
made bishop of Sarisbury, 1482. As he was at first preferred, 
so his memory is still supported from sinking in silence, rather 
by the buttresses of his great relations, than the foundation of 
his own deserts : for he was son to Jaquet duchess of Bedford, 
and Richard Wydevill earl of Rivers; brother to Elizabeth 
queen of England ; brother-in-law to king Edward the Fourth ; 
uncle to king Edward the fifth; and father (say some) to Ste 
phen Gardener, bishop of Winchester. Heart-broken with grief, 
with the tragedies he beheld in his own family, caused by the 
cruelty of king Richard the Third, he died about the year of our 
Lord, 1484. 

* Dr. Richard Zouch, Professor of law in Oxford. 



506 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 



SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

JAMES MONTAGUE, son to Sir Edward Montague, knight, 
was born at Boughton, in this county ; bred in Christ s college in 
Cambridge. He was afterwards master, or rather nursing-father, 
to Sidney College ; for he found it in bonds to pay twenty marks 
per annum to Trinity College, for the ground whereon it is built ; 
and left it free, assigning it a rent for the discharge thereof. 
When the King s Ditch in Cambridge, made to defend it by its 
strength, did in his time offend it with its stench, he expended a 
hundred marks to bring running water into it, to the great con- 
veniency of the university. He was afterwards bishop, first of 
Bath and, Wells, then of Winchester, being highly in favour with 
king James, who did ken a man of merit as well as any prince in 
Christendom. He translated the works of king James into 
Latin, and improved his greatness to good offices therewith. 
He died anno Domini 1618; and lieth buried within his fair 
monument, within his fairer monument I mean a goodly tomb 
in the church of Bath, which oweth its well-being and beauty to 
his munificence. 

FRANCIS GODWIN, son to Thomas Godwin, bishop of Bath and 
Wells, was born at Haningham in this county ;* bred in Christ s 
church in Oxford ; doctor of divinity, and sub-dean of Exeter. 
He was born in the fourth year of the reign of queen Elizabeth, 
anno 1561 ; and in the fortieth year of his age, 1601, by her 
majesty made bishop of Llandaff; a bishopric better proportioned 
to his modesty than merits, as which was much impaired by his 
predecessor ; so that one did truly say, " A bad Kitching did for 
ever spoil the good meat of the bishops of Llandaff."t He was 
a good man, grave divine, skilful mathematician, pure Latinist, 
and incomparable historian. The church of Llandaff was much 
beholding to him ; yea, the whole church of England ; yea, the 
whole church militant ; yea, many now in the church triumphant 
had had their memories utterly lost on earth, if not preserved 
by his painful endeavours in his " Catalogue of English Bishops." 
I am sorry to see that some have made so bad use of his good 
labours, who have lighted their candles from his torch, thereby 
merely to discover the faults of our bishops, that their personal 
failings may be an argument against the prelatical function. He 
was translated, by king James, to the bishopric at Hereford, and 
died, very aged, in the reign of king Charles, anno Domini 1633. 

JOHN OWEN was born at Burton Latimers, in this county; 
his father being the worthy and grave minister thereof. He was 
bred a fellow in Jesus college in Cambridge, where he corn- 
witness himself in his Catalogue of Llandaff. 
t Anthony Kitchin, who marred this See with selling and letting long leases F. 



PRELATES STATESMEN. 507 



menced doctor of divinity ; and was chaplain to king Charles, 
whilst he was a prince. A modest man, who would not own 
the worth he had in himself; and therefore others are the 
more engaged to give him his due esteem. 

In the vacancy of the bishopric of Saint Asaph, king Charles, 
being much troubled with two competitors, advanced doctor 
Owen, (not thinking thereof) as an expedient to end the con 
test. Indeed his majesty was mistaken in his birth, accounting 
him a Welchman ; but not in his worth, seeing he deserved a far 
better preferment. Besides he was, though not ortus, oriundus 
e Wallia, and by his father (being a Welchman) he was related 
to all the best families in North Wales. He out-lived his vote 
in Parliament, and survived to see all contempt cast on his 
order, which he bare with much moderation, and died anno 
Domini 1651. 

ROBERT SKINNER, D.D., was born at Pisford in this county, 
where his father was minister, bred fellow of Trinity college, in 
Oxford, afterwards an eminent preacher in London, and dean 
of Hence he was preferred bishop of Bristol, and after 
wards of Oxford ; and is still, and long may he be, living.* 

STATESMEN. 

Sir CHRISTOPHER HATTON was born (I collect at Holdenby) 
in this county, of a family rather ancient than wealthy, yet of 
no mean estate. He rather took a bait than made a meal at 
the inns of court, whilst he studied the laws therein. He came 
afterwards to court in a mask, where the queen first took 
notice of him, loving him well for his handsome dancing, better 
for his proper person, and best of all for his great abilities. 
His parts were far above his learning, which mutually so 
assisted each other, that no manifest want did appear ; and the 
queen at last preferred him lord chancellor of England. 

The gown-men, grudging hereat, conceived his advance 
ment their injury, that one not thoroughly bred in the laws 
should be preferred to the place. How could he cure diseases 
unacquainted with their causes ; who might easily mistake the 
justice of the Common-law for rigour, not knowing the true 
reason thereof? Hereupon it was, that some sullen Serjeants 
at the first refused to plead before him, until, partly by his 
power, but more by his prudence, he had convinced them of 
their errors, and his abilities. Indeed he had one Sir Richard 
Swale, doctor of the civil laws (and that law, some say, is very 
sufficient to dictate equity) his servant-friend, whose advice he 
followed in all matters of moment. 

A scandal is raised, that he was popishly affected ; and I 
cannot blame the Romanists, if desirous to countenance their 

He had been rector of Launton in Oxfordshire; bishop of Bristol 1636; 
translated to Oxford 1640 ; and to Worcester 1663. He died in 1671 ED. 



508 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

% 

cause with so sonsiderable a person. Yet most true it is, that 
his zeal for the dicipline of the Church of England gave the first 
being and life to this report. 

One saith, that he was " a mere vegetable of the court,* that 
sprung up at night, and sunk again at his noon ;" though indeed 
he was of longer continuance. Yet it brake his heart, that the 
queen (who seldom gave boons, and never forgave due debts) 
rigorously demanded the present payment of some arrears, 
which Sir Christopher did not hope to have remitted, but did 
only desire to be forborne : failing herein in his expectation, 
it went to his heart, and cast him into a mortal disease. 
The queen afterwards did endeavour what she could to recover 
him, bringing, as some say, cordial broths unto him with her 
own hands ; but all would not do. Thus no pulleys can draw 
up a heart once cast down, though a queen herself should set 
her hand thereunto. He died anno Domini 1591 ; and is 
buried, under a stately monument, in the choir of Saint Paul s. 

Sir WILLIAM FITZ-WILLIAMS, born at Milton in this 
county, married the sister of Sir Henry Sidney, lord deputy of 
Ireland. Yea, he himself was five times lord deputy of that 
kingdom ;f a sufficient evidence of his honesty and ability, 
seeing queen Elizabeth never trusted twice, where she was once 
deceived in a minister of state. She so preserved him in the 
power of his place, that, sending over Walter earl of Essex (a 
person higher in honour) to be governor of Ulster, it was ordered 
that the earl should take his commission from the lord deputy 4 

An intelligent pen alloweth him serviceable towards the 
reduction of that kingdom, in two eminent particulars. First, 
in raising a composition in Munster, then in settling the posses 
sions of the lords and tenants in Monaghan, one of the last acts 
of state (tendering to the reformation of the civil government) 
performed in the reign of queen Elizabeth. His vigilancy was 
most conspicuous in the eighty-eighth, when the routed Armada, 
in its return, did look, dared not to land, in Ireland, except 
against their wills driven by tempest, when they found the 
shore worse than the sea unto them. I confess, some im 
pute the Irish rebellion j| which afterwards broke out to this 
deputy s severity, in imprisoning suspected persons for conceal 
ing Spanish goods, though this only gave the Irish a mantle for 
their intended wickedness. He died anno Domini 15 .. 

Sir ISAAC WAKE was born in this county, whose father, 
Arthur Wake, clerk, was parson of Billing, master of the hos- 

* Fragmenta Regalia, in his Character. 

t " Guil. Fitz-Williams, jam yuintum Hibernise Pro-rex." Camden s Elizabeth, 
anno 1587. 

f Idem, anno 1573. 

Sir John Davis, in his " Dicoveries of Ireland," p. 257. 

|| Camden, anno 1588. 



JUDGES WRITERS. 509 

pital of Saint John s in Northampton, and canon of Christ s 
Church, and son to John Wake of Saucy Forrest, esquire, of a 
most ancient and honourable family.* He was bred fellow of 
Merton College in Oxford, proctor and orator of that university. 
He was afterwards secretary to Sir Dudley Carleton, secretary 
of state ; and from his, was advanced into the king s service, 
and employed ambassador to Venice, where he neglected his 
own commodity, to attend his majesty s employment ; the rea 
son that he died rich only to his own conscience. Coming from 
Venice, he was appointed lieger for France, and designed secre 
tary of state, had not death prevented him at Paris. He was 
accomplished with all qualifications requisite for public employ 
ment ; learning, languages, experience, abilities, and what not. 

King Charles, hearing of his death, commanded his corpse to 
be decently brought from Paris into England, allowing the ex- 
pences for his funeral, and enjoining his nearest relations to attend 
the performance thereof. These accordingly met his body at 
Boulogne in France, and saw it solemnly conveyed into Eng 
land, where it was interred in the chapel of the castle of Dover, 
anno Domini 16 .. 

CAPITAL JUDGES, AND WRITERS ON THE LAW. 

[AMP.] MARTIN de PATESHULL. Let him remain here, 
till any show me a town called Pateshulle, in any other county 
of England ; which village in this shire gave the name, and 
afforded the habitation, to that ancient family, t Though a 
clergyman, he was, in the first of king Henry the Third, made 
justice of the Lower Bench, or Common Pleas,! wherein he 
continued for twelve years and upwards, as appeareth by the 
date of his death, out of an excellent author : "Eodem anno 
obiit Martinus de Pateshulle, decanus S. Pauli London. 18 Cal. 
Decem. vir mirse prudentiee, et legum regni peritissimus." 

He was the fourth dean of Saint Paul s, as reckoned up in 
Bishop Godwin s Catalogue. In that age we see, clergymen 
were not only trusted with the spirit (I mean the equity) but 
also with the letter of the law, being judges in those courts 
wherein were the most strict proceedings. 

Sir THOMAS de BILLING was born in this county (where two 
villages, his namesakes, near Northampton) ; and had his habi 
tation, in great state, at Ashwell in this shire. He was made 
chief justice of the King s Bench in the sixth, || and so con 
tinued till the one and twentieth of Edward the Fourth, whose 
lands (and those very large) have since, by the Lovells, 

* So am I informed from Mr. George Wake, late fellow of Magdalen College in 

Oxford, and his near kinsman F. 

f Camden s Britannia, in Northamptonshire. 

J Sir Henry Spelman s Glossary, verbo Jitsliliarius. 

Florilegus in anno 1226, being the 14th of Henry III. 

|| Sir Henry Spelman, ut prius. 



510 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

descended to the Shirlies.* Nothing else have I to observe of 
him, save that he married, for his second wife, Mary, the 
daughter and heir of Robert Nesenham, of Conington in Hun 
tingdonshire, the relict of William Cotton (whose issue possess 
her inheritance at this day), and she lieth entombed in West 
minster, f 

Sir WILLIAM CATESBYE was born in this county, where his 
family long flourished at Ashby Saint Leger. He was first 
advanced by William Lord Hastings, by whose countenance 
he came to the notice, then favour, of Richard the Third, though 
ill requiting it, when betraying him who caused his preferment. 
Take his character (transcribing in this kind, is safer than 
indicting) from an author J above exception. "This Catesby 
was a man well learned in the laws of this land; and surely 
great pity it was that he had not more truth, or less wit." 

If any object, that being neither lord chief justice, chief baron, 
nor any writer on the law, he falleth not under my pen, by the 
charter of method prefixed to this catalogue, know, that, though 
formerly none, he was eminently all officers, in every court of 
judicature, all the judges shaking at his displeasure. Witness 
the libel which Collingborn made, and which cost him his life 
for the same : 

" The Rat, and the Cat,\\ and Lovel the Dog, 
Do govern all England under the Hog."^ 

The time of his death is uncertain ; but, because we find him 
not molested in the reign of king Henry the Seventh (which, 
had he survived, surely had happened) it is probable he died 
before his patron and preferrer, king Richard the Third. 

Sir RICHAD EMPSON. It is pity to part them, seeing Emp- 
son may be called the Catesbye to king Henry the Seventh, as 
Catesbye the Empson to king Richard the Third ; both coun 
trymen, eminent for having, odious for abusing, their skill in 
law ; active for the prince, injurious to the people. This Sir 
Richard was chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster ; and from a 
sieve-maker s son (at Towcester in this county, where he was 
born) came to sift the estates of the most wealthy men in Eng 
land. 

For king Henry the Seventh, vexed that he had refused 
Columbus s proffer (whereby the West Indies, being found out 
fortunately, fell to Ferdinand king of Spain), resolved to dis 
cover Indies in England ; and, to this purpose, made Empson. 
promoter general, to press the penal statutes all over the land. 

Camden s Britannia, in Northamptonshire. 

Stow s Survey of London, p. 519. 
+ Sir Thomas More, printing the Continuation of John Harding s Chronicle, 

Ratcliffe. || Catesbye. 

1 King Richard the Third, who gave a boar for his crest. 



JUDGES WRITERS. 511 

Empowered hereby, this prowling knight did grind the faces of 
rich and poor, bringing the grist thereof to the king, and keep 
ing the toll thereof to himself, whereby he advanced a vast 
estate, which now, with his name, is reduced to nothing. He 
united the two houses of York and Lancaster in the king s 
coffers, taking no notice of parties or persons for their former 
good service, but making all equally obnoxious to fines and for 
feitures. But, in the beginning of the reign of king Henry the 
Eighth, he was arraigned, condemned, and beheaded, August 
the 17th, 1510. Say not that princes, if sacrificing their minis 
ters to popular fury, will want persons faithfully to serve them, 
seeing such exemplary justice will rather fright officers from 
false-deserving them ; for, in fine, no real profit can redound to 
the sovereign, which resulteth from the ruin of his subjects. 

I must not forget how there was an old man in Warwick 
shire, accounted very judicious in judicial astrology, of whom 
Sir Richard Empson (then in his prime) did scoffingly demand, 
" When the sun would change ?" To whom the old man re 
plied, " Even when such a wicked lawyer as you go to heaven/ * 
But we leave him to stand and fall to his own Master, and pro 
ceed. 

EDWARD MONTAGUE, son of Thomas Montague, born at 
Brigstock in this county, was bred in the Inner Temple, in the 
study of the laws, until his ability and integrity advanced him 
lord chief justice of the King s Bench, in the thirtieth of 
Henry the Eighth. He gave for his motto, " Equitas Justitiae 
Norma." And although equity seemeth rather to resent of the 
Chancery than the King s Bench, yet the best justice will be 
worm-wood without a mixture thereof. In his times, though 
the golden showers of abbey-lands rained amongst great men, it 
was long before he would open his lap (scrupling the accepta 
tion of such gifts) ; and at last received but little in proportion 
to others of that age. 

In the thirty-seventh of king Henry the Eighth, he was made 
chief justice of the common pleas ; a descent in honour, but 
ascent in profit ; it being given to old age, rather to be thrifty 
than ambitious. 

In drawing up the will of king Edward the Sixth, and set 
tling the cro\vn on the lady Jane, for a time, he swam against 
the tide and torrent of Duke Dudley, t till at last he was carried 
away with the stream, as in our " Church History" is largely 
related. 

Ousted of his judge s office in the first of queen Mary, he re 
turned into Northamptonshire ; and what contentment he could 
not find in Westminster-hall, his hospital-hall at Boughton af- 

* Camden s Remains. 

| John Dudley, the powerful and ambitious duke of Northumberland, afterwards 
beheaded by queen Mary ED. 



512 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

forded unto him. He died anno 1556 ; and lieth buried in the 
parish church of Weekly. 

Sir AUGUSTIN NICOLLS, son to Thomas Nicolls, sergeant at 
law, was born at Eckton in this county. Now though, accord 
ing to the rigour of our fundamental premises, he cometh not 
within our cognizance under this title, yet his merit will justify 
us in presenting his character. 

He was bred in the study of the common law, wherein he at 
tained to such knowledge, that queen Elizabeth made him a 
(king James his own) sergeant ; whence he was freely preferred 
one of the judges of the Common Pleas ; I say freely, king 
James commonly calling him " the judge that would give no 
money." Not to speak of his moral qualifications and subordi 
nate abilities ; he was renowned for his special judiciary endow 
ments ; patience to hear both parties all they could say, a 
happy memory, a singular sagacity to search into the material 
circumstances; exemplary integrity, even to the rejection of 
gratuities after judgment giving. 

His forbearing to travel on the Lord s day wrought a 
reformation on some of his own order. He loved plain and 
profitable preaching ; being wont to say, " I know not what you 
call puritanical sermons; but they come nearest to my con 



science." 



The speech of Caesar is commonly known, " Oportet impera- 
torern stantem mori ;" which Bishop Jewell altered, and applied 
to himself, " Decet Episcopum concionantem mori ; " of this 
man it may be said, " Judex mortuus est jura dans," dying in 
his calling, as he went the northern circuit ; and hath a fair 
monument in Kendall-church in Westmorland. 



Sir 
in this 



ir ROBERT DALLINGTON, Knight, was born at Geddington 
.his county ; bred a Bible clerk (as I justly collect) in Bene t 
College ; and after became a schoolmaster in Norfolk. Here 
having gained some money, he travelled over all France and 
Italy, being exact in his observations ; and was, after his return, 
secretary to Francis earl of Rutland. He had an excellent wit 
and judgment, witness his most accurate aphorisms on Tacitus. 
At last he was knighted, and preferred master of the Charter 
house, where the schoolmaster,* at his first entering, welcomed 
him with a speech in Latin verse, spoken by a schoolboy ; but 
sure he was more than a boy who indited it. It is hard to say, 
whether Sir Robert was more pleased or displeased with the last 



distic therein : 



Partem oneris vestri minimum ne detpice, curam 
Nee Pueros iterilm teediat esse tuam. 

Do not the least part of your trust disdain, 
Nor grudge of boys to take the care again." 

* Dr. Gray. 



WRITERS OX LAW. 51.5 

He lived to be a very aged man, past seventy-six, and died 
anno Domini 1637. 

JOHN FLETCHER, son of Richard Fletcher, D. D. was (as by 
proportion of time is collectible) born in this county, before his 
father was bishop of Bristol or London, and whilst as yet he 
was dean of Peterborough. He had an excellent wit, which, 
the back friends to stage-plays will say, was neither idle nor 
well employed ; for he and Francis Beaumont, esquire, like Cas 
tor and Pollux (most happy Avhen in conjunction) raised the 
English to equal the Athenian and Roman theatre ; Beaumont 
bringing the ballast of judgment, Fletcher the sail of phantasy ; 
both compounding a poet to admiration. 

Meeting once in a tavern, to contrive the rude draught of a 
tragedy, Fletcher undertook to kill the king therein ; whose 
words being overheard by a listener (though his loyalty not to 
be blamed herein), he was accused of high treason ; till, the 
mistake soon appearing, that the plot was only against a dra 
matic and scenical king, all wound off in merriment. 

Nor could it be laid to Fletcher s charge, what Ajax doth to 
Ulysses :* 

- NUiil hie Diomede remoto. 



" When Diomede was gone, 
He could do nought alone." 

For, surviving his partner, he wrote good comedies himself, 
though inferior to the former ; and no wonder, if a single thread 
was not so strong as a twisted one. He died (as I am in 
formed) in London, of the plague, in the first of king Charles, 
1625. 

Sir HENRY MONTAGUE, knight, third son to Sir Edward 
Montague, knight, grand-child to Sir Edward Montague, knight, 
lord chief justice of the King s Bench, was born at Boughton in 
this county. One skilful in mysterious arts, beholding him when 
a schoolboy, foretold that, by the pregnancy of his parts, he 
would raise himself above the rest of his family ; which came to 
pass accordingly. He was bred first in Christ s College at 
Cambridge ; then in the Middle Temple, where he attained to great 
learning in the laws, and passed through many preferments, viz. 
1. Serjeant at law ; 2. Knighted by king James, July 22, 1602 ; 
3. Recorder of London ; 4. Lord Chief Justice of the King s 
Bench, November 18, 1616 ; 5. Lord Treasurer of England, De 
cember 16,1620; 6. Baron of Kimbolton ; 7 Viscount Mande- 
ville; 8. President of the Council, September 29, 1621 ; 9. Earl 
of Manchester; 10. Lord Privy Seal. 

He wisely perceiving that courtiers were but as counters in the 
hands of princes, raised and depressed in valuation at pleasure, 
was contented rather to be set for a smaller sum, than to be 

* Ovid, Metam. lib. 13. 
VOL. II. 2 L 



514 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

quite put up into the box. Thus, in point of place and prefer 
ment, being pleased to be what the king would have him (ac 
cording to his motto, " Movendo non mutando me,") he became 
almost what he would be himself, finally advanced to an office of 
great honour. When lord privy seal, he brought the Court of 
Requests into such repute, that what formerly was called the 
alms-basket of the chancery, had in his time well nigh as much 
meat in, and guests about it (I mean suits and clients) as the 
chancery itself. His Meditations on Life and Death, written in 
the time of his health, may be presumed to have left good im 
pressions on his own soul, preparatory for his dissolution, which 
happened 1642. 

WRITERS. 

JOHN of NORTHAMPTON, in Latin Johannes Avonius, was 
born in the town of Northampton, " in ipso insulse umbilico," 
(saith Bale*) ; and is not mistaken in his proportion. This 
mindeth me of a village in this county, sufficiently known, com 
monly called Navesby, whose orthography critics will have 
Navelsby, as in the middle of England. This John became a 
Carmelite in his native town, and so addicted himself to the study 
of mathematics, that he became one of the most eminent in that 
age for practical experiments. He was author of a work which 
he called "The Philosopher s Ring/ This was not, like "the 
philosopher s stone," a thing merely imaginary, nor yet was it 
a work of the " Cyclopedy of Arts " (as the sound may seem to 
import) ; but it was, in plain truth, a perpetual almanac. I 
say almanac, which word though many make of Arabic extrac 
tion, a great antiquary f will have it derived from the the Dutch, 
Al-mon-aght ; that is to say, Al-mon-heed, the regard or observa 
tion of all moons. However, this work of John was beheld as a 
master-piece of that age, and since commented upon by other 
writers. He flourished anno Domini 1340. 

ROBERT HOLCOT was born in a village of this county so 
named, bred in the university of Oxford, and afterwards became 
a Dominican in Northampton. A deep scholar, and yet com 
mended to be prudent in rebus agendis, and accounted one of 
the greatest schoolmen in that age. Nor was he only a candle, 
or domestic light, confined within the walls of his own country ; 
but his learning was a public luminary to all Christendom, as 
appears by the praise which Trithemiusl) bestoweth upon him. 

" Vir in Divinis Scripturis eruditissimus, et secularium litera- 
rum non ignarus ; ingenio prsestans, et clarus eloquio, declamator 

* Cent. v. num. 75. f Verstegan, of Decayed Intelligence, p. 58. 

J Camden s Britannia, in Northamptonshire. 

Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, cent. vi. num. 8. 

|| De Scriptoribus Eccles. fol. 136. 



WRITERS. 515 



qupque sermonum egregius. Scripsit multa preeclara opuscula, 
quibus nomen suum posteris notificavit." 

He died at Northampton of the plague, anno 1349, before he 
had finished his lectures on the Seventh of Ecclesiastes. I say 
of the plague, which at that time so raged in England, that our 
chroniclers* affirm, scarce a tenth person of all sorts was 
left alive; insomuch that, the churches and churchyards in 
London not sufficing for their interments, a new churchyard was 
consecrated in West Smithfield, wherein fifty thousand were 
buried, who at the time died of the pestilence.f 

ROBERT DODFORD was born in a village so called in this 
county (where the Wirlyes, gentlemen of good account, have 
long had their habitation) ; so named, as I take it, from a ford 
over the river Avon, and dods, water weeds (commonly called 
by children cats tails) growing thereabouts. He was bred a 
Benedictine monk in the abbey of Ramsey ; and applied him 
self to the study of the Hebrew tongue, wherewith the library 
(of which he was keeper) in that convent did much abound.J 
He wrote Postils on the Proverbs, and other sermons, which 
the envy of time hath intercepted from us. He is said to 
have flourished about the year 1370, by Bale; though Pits 
(on what account I know not) maketh him more ancient by 
an hundred years. 

PETER PATES HULL was, no doubt, born in that village, not 
far from Northampton j bred an Augustinian in Oxford. How 
ever, falling afterwards into some dislike of his order, he pro 
cured from Walter Dysse (legate to pope Urban the Sixth) a 
dispensation to relinquish it, and was made the Pope s honorary 
chaplain. Afterwards, by often reading the works of Wickliffe 
(but especially his book of " Real Universal," ) he became of 
his judgment; and after the death of Wickliffe, preached and 
prompted his doctrine ; he wrote an exposition of the Prophecy 
rtildegards (a stinging comment on a nettling text) ; and so 
taxed the pride and laziness of all friars, that his book was burnt 
by command from the Pope ; and the writer thereof had been 
burnt also, had he not seasonably secured himself by his flight 
beyond the seas. 

This mindeth me of a passage of a friar, who burned a book of 
Peter Rarnus, after the death of the author thereof ; and then 
and there used this distich, in some imitation of Ovid : 

Parve, nee invideo (sine me} liber ibis in ignem, 

Hei mihi quod domino non licet ire tun. 
" Small book, thy fate I envy not, 
Without me feel the flame ; 

* Stow s Ann. page 245. f Idem, ibidem. 

Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iv. num. 41 
Idem, Cent. vii. numb. 2. 

2 L 2 



51G WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

Oh had it been thy master s lot, 
He might have felt the same." 

But our Pateshull was out of reach in Bohemia, betwixt which 
and England, a great intercourse in that age, since king Richard 
had married a sister of Wincelaus king of Bohemia. We behold 
him as an advancer of Wicklivisme in that county, for which 
John Huss and Hierome of Prague were afterwards con 
demned. He flourished in the year of our Lord 1390. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

ROBERT CROWLEY was born in this county;* bred master of 
arts in Magdalen College in Oxford. It happened that one 
Miles Hogheard, whom Pitsf maketh a learned writer, and en- 
tituleth him, " Virum doctum, pium, et in fide Catholica mire 
zelosum," (though in master Fox it appeareth, by his own con 
fession, that he was but an hosier in London,) wrote railing books 
against the poor Protestants. Our Crowley took him to task, 
and confuted him in several treatises. Under queen Mary, 
he fled over to Frankfort ; and returning under queen Elizabeth, 
was made vicar of Saint Giles without Cripplegate, London, 
where he lieth buried under a fair plated stone in the chancel. 
He died on the 18th of June, 1588. J 

EUSEBIUS PAGET was born at Cranford in this county, as 
Master Ephraim Paget, his aged son, late minister of St. Edmond 
the King, Lombard Street, hath informed me. He was admitted, 
at twelve years of age, into Oxford, where, when a boy, he brake 
his right arm with carrying the pax, though surely some casu 
alty beside so light a weight concurred thereunto. He was com 
monly called the golden sophister, and yet he proved no leaden 
graduate. Many years he was a painful minister in London ; 
and was author of" that excellent book called "The History of 
the Bible," and catechism of "The Forty short Questions/ 
which hath done as much good to unbook-learned people, as any 
of that kind. The certain date of his death I cannot attain, 

JOHN PRESTON, D.D. was born at Heyford in this county ; 
bred in Queen s College in Cambridge, whose life (interwoven 
much with church and state matters) is so well written by his 
pupil, Master Thomas Ball, that all additions thereunto may 
seem " carrying of coals to Newcastle." However, seeing he 
who carrieth charcoal (a different kind from the native coal of 
that place) may meet with a chapman there, on the same confi 
dence a word or two of this doctor. 

Before he commenced Master of Arts, he was so far from emi- 
nency, as but a little above contempt. Thus the most generous 
wines are the most muddy before they are fine. Soon after, his 

* Bale de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent ix. num. 80. 

t De Angliee Scriptoribus, 1556. J Stem s Survey of London, page 313. 

As his said son related to me. F. 



WRITERS. 517 

skill in philosophy rendered him to the general respect of the 
university. 

He was the greatest pupil-monger in England in man s me 
mory, having sixteen fellow commoners (most heirs to fair es 
tates) admitted in one year in Queen s College, and provided 
convenient accommodations for them. As William the popular 
earl of Nassau was said to have won a subject from the king of 
Spain, to his own party, every time he put off his hat ; so was 
it commonly said in the college, that every time when Master 
Preston plucked off his hat to doctor Davenant the college-mas 
ter, he gained a chamber or study for one of his pupils ; amongst 
whom one Chambers, a Londoner (who died very young), was 
very eminent for his learning. 

Baing chosen master of Emanuel College, he removed thither 
with most of his pupils ; and I remember when it was much 
admired where all these should find lodgings in that college, 
which was so full already, " Oh ! " said one, " Master Preston 
will carry Chambers along with him." 

The party called Puritan then being most active in Parliament, 
and doctor Preston most powerful with them, the duke rather 
used than loved him, to work that party to his compliance. 
Some thought the doctor was unwilling to do it ; and no wonder 
he effected not, what he affected riot. Others thought he was 
unable, that party being so diffusive, and then, in their designs 
(as since in their practices) divided. However, whilst any hope, 
none but doctor Preston with the duke, set by and extolled, 
and afterwards, set by and neglected, when found useless to the 
intended purpose. In a word, my worthy friend fitly calls him 
the court-comet, blazing for a time, and fading soon afterwards. 

He was a perfect politician, and used (lapwing-like) to flutter 
most on that place which was furthest from his eggs ; exact at 
the concealing of his intentions, with that simulation, which some 
make to lie in the marches of things lawful and unlawful. He 
had perfect command of his passion; with the Caspian Sea 
never ebbing nor flowing ; and would not alter his composed 
pace for all the whipping which satirical wits bestowed upon 
him. He never had wife, or cure of souls ; and, leaving a plen 
tiful, no invidious estate, died anno Domini 1628, July 20. 
Pass we now from one who was all judgment and gravity, to 
another (place and time making the connexion) who was all 
wit and festivity, viz. 

THOMAS RANDOLPH, born at Houghton in this county, was 
first bred in Westminster School, then fellow in Trinity College 
at Cambridge. The Muses may seem not only to have smiled, 
but to have been tickled at his nativity, such the festivity of his 
poems of all sorts. But my declining age, being superannuated 
to meddle with such ludicrous matters, consigneth the censure 
and commendation of his poems (as also of his countryman Pe- 



518 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

ter Haulsted, born at Oundle in this county) to younger pens, for 
whom it is most proper. MasterRandolph died anno Domini 1671. 

NICHOLAS ESTWICK, B.D. was born at Harrowden (the ba 
rony of the Lord Vaux) in this county. A solid Protestant : to 
counterpoise Kellison, a violent Papist, and native of the same 
village. He was bred fellow of Christ s College in Cambridge, 
being there beheld as a pious and judicious divine, always cheer 
ful without the least levity, and grave without any moroseness. 
He was afterwards presented by the Lord Montague parson of 
of Warton, where he lived a painful preacher 40 years, less 
than a deacon in his humility, and more than an archbishop in 
his own contentment, Hence he was [unwillingly- willing] pre 
ferred by the earl of Rutland to Bottesford in Leicestershire, 
where he had hardly inned one harvest, before, like a ripe sheaf, 
he was brought into the barn of the grave. Thus, though young 
trees are meliorated with transplanting, yet old ones seldom live, 
and never flourish after their removal. Let his works witness 
the rest of his worth, some of whose books are published, others 
prepared for the press ; and I wish them a happy nativity, for 
the public good. Coming to take his farewell of his friends, 
he preached on the forenoon of the Lord s-day, sickened on the 
afternoon ; and was buried with his wife in the same grave, in 
Warton chancel, the week following, 1657. 

ROMISH EXILE WRITERS. 

MATTHEW KELLISON was born in this county, at Harrow- 
den,* his father being a servant and tenant of the Lord Vaux, 
in whose family his infancy did suck in the Romish persuasions. 
He afterwards went beyond the seas, and was very much in mo 
tion. 1. He first fixed himself at the college of Rheims in 
France : 2. Thence removed to the English college at Rome, 
where he studied in philosophy and divinity : 3. Returned to 
Rheims, where he took the degree of Doctor : 4. Removed to 
Douay, where for many years he read school-divinity: 5. Re- 
returned to Rheims, where he became King s Professor, and 
rector of the university. 

So much for the travails of his feet ; now for the labours of 
his hands (the pains of his pen) those of his own opinion can 
give the best account of them. He wrote a book to king James, 
which his majesty never saw ; and another against Sutliff, with 
many more ; and was living 1611. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

HENRY CHICHELY, son of Thomas and Agnes Chichely,was 
born at Higham Ferrers, in this county; bred in Oxford, and 
designed by Wickham himself (yet surviving) to be one of the 

* Pits, p. 811. 



BENEFACTORS. 519 

fellows of New College. He afterwards became chaplain to R. 
Metford bishop of Sarum, who made him archdeacon, which he 
exchanged for the chancellor s place of that cathedral. This 
bishop, at his death, made him his chief executor, and bequeath 
ed him a fair gilt cup for a legacy. By king Henry the Fourth 
he was sent to the Council of Risa, 1409, and by the Pope s own 
hands was consecrated bishop of St. David s at Vienna, and 
thence was advanced archbishop of Canterbury by king Henry 
the Fifth. 

During his reign, in the Parliament at Leicester, a shrewd 
thrust was made at all abbeys, not with a rebated point, but 
with sharps indeed, which this archbishop, as a skilful fencer, 
fairly put by, though others will say he guarded that blow with 
a silver buckler ; the clergy paying to the king vast sums of mo 
ney to maintain his wars in France, and so made a foreign di 
version for such active spirits, which otherwise, in all probabi 
lity, would have antedated the dissolution of monasteries. 

Under king Henry the Sixth he sat sure in his see, though 
often affronted by the rich cardinal Beaufort of Winchester, 
whom he discreetly thanked for many injuries. A cardinal s 
cap was proffered to and declined by him ; some putting the 
refusal on the account of his humility, others of his pride (loth 
to be junior to the aforesaid cardinal) ; others of his policy, tin- 
willing to be more engaged to the court of Rome. Indeed he 
was thorough-paced in all spiritual popery which concerned 
religion (which made him so cruel against the Wicklivites) ; 
but in secular Popery (as I may term it, touching the interest 
of princes) he did not so much as rack, and was a zealous 
assertor of the English liberties against Romish usurpation. 

Great his zeal to promote learning, as appears by three col 
leges erected and endowed at his expence and procurement : 
1. One, with an hospital for the poor, at Higham Ferrers, the 
place of his nativity. 2. Saint Bernard s in Oxford, afterwards 
altered and bettered by Sir Thomas White into Saint John s 
College. 3. All-Souls in Oxford, the fruitful nursery of so 
many learned men. 

He continued in his archbishopric (longer than any of his 
predecessors for 500 years) full twenty-nine years; and died 
April 12, 1443, 

WILLIAM LAXTON, son to John Laxton, of Oundle in this 
county, was bred a grocer in London, where he so prospered by 
his painful endeavours, that he was chosen lord mayor, anno 
Domini 1544. He founded a fair school and alms-house at 
Oundle in this county, with convenient maintenance, well main 
tained at this day by the worshipful company of grocers ; and 
hath been, to my knowledge, the nursery of many scholars 
most eminent in the university. 



520 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

These Latin verses are inscribed in the front of the building : 

Oundellee natus, Londini parla labore, 
Laxtonus posuit senibus puerisque lezamen. 

" At Oundle born, what he did get 

In London with great pain, 
Laxton to young and old hath set 
A comfort to remain." 

He died anno Domini 1556, the 29th of July; and lieth buried, 
under a fair tomb, in the chancel of Saint Antony s, London. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

NICHOLAS LATHAM was born at Brigstock,* in this county, 
and afterwards became minister of All-Saints church in Barn- 
wells. This man had no considerable estate left him from his 
father, nor eminent .addition of wealth from his friends, nor 
enjoyed any dignity in the church of England, nor ever held 
more than one moderate benefice. And yet, by God s blessing on 
his vivacious frugality, he got so great an estate, that he told a 
friend he could have left his son, had he had one, land to the 
value of five hundred pounds by the year. But, though he had 
no issue, yet, making the poor his heirs, he left the far greatest 
part of his estate to pious uses ; founded several small schools 
with salaries in country villages ; and founded a most beautiful 
almshouse at Oundle in this county ; and I could wish that all 
houses of the like nature were but continued and ordered so 
well as this is, according to the will of the founder. He died 
anno Domini 1620; and lieth buried in the chancel of his own 
parish, having lived seventy-two years. 

EDWARD MONTAGUE, Baron of Boughton, and eldest son 
to Sir Edward Montague, knight, was born in this county ; a 
pious, peaceable, and hospitable patriot. It was not the least 
part of his outward happiness, that, having no male issue by 
his first wife, and marrying when past fifty years of age, he lived 
to see his son enriched with hopeful children. I behold him, 
as bountiful Barsillia,t superannuated for courtly pleasures, and 
therefore preferring to live honourably in his own country, 
wherein he was generally beloved, so that popularity may be 
said to have affected him, who never affected it : for, in evidence 
of the vanity thereof, he used to say, " do the common sort of 
people nineteen courtesies together ; and yet you may lose 
their love, if you do but go over the stile before them." He 
was a bountiful benefactor to Sidney College, and builded and 
endowed an alms-house at Weekly in this county. 

" To have no bands in their death/ J is an outward favour 
many wicked have, many godly men want ; amongst whom, this 

* So saith the inscription on his monument. f 2 Samuel xix. 35. 

J Psalm Ixxiii. 4. 



MEMORABLE PERSONS LORD MAYORS SHERIFFS. 521 



good lord, who died in restraint in the Savoy, on the account 
of his loyalty to his sovereign. Let none grudge him the enjoy 
ing of his judgment, a purchase he so dearly bought, and truly 
paid for, whose death happened in the year of our Lord 164 .. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

There is a memorial entered on the wall of the cathedral of 
Peterborough, for one who, being sexton thereof, interred two 
queens therein [Katharine Dowager, and Mary of Scotland,] 
more than fifty years intervening betwixt their several sepul 
tures. This vivacious sexton also buried two generations, or 
the people in that place twice over. Thus having built many 
houses (so I find graves frequently called domus ceternalesj 
for others, some (as it was fitting) performed this last office 
unto him. Thus though sextons often meet with bad savours 
arising from corpse too much (or rather too little) corrupted, yet 
is the instance of his long life alleged by such who maintain 
that the smelling to perfect mould made of men s consumed 
bodies is a preservative of life. 

LORD MAYORS. 

1. John Rest, son of Will. Rest, of Peterborough, Grocer, 1516. 

2. Will. Laxton, son of John Laxton, of Yongdell, Grocer, 

1544. 

3. Ralph Freeman, son of Will, Freeman, of Northampton, 

Clothworker, 1633. 

Reader, this is one of the twelve counties whose gentry were 
not returned into the Tower, in the reign of king Henry the 
Sixth. 



SHERIFFS. 



HENRY II. 



A imo 



1 Rich. Basset, et 
Albrus de Vere. 

2 Simon fil. Petri. 

3 Idem. 
4 

5 Idem. 
6 

7 Idem. 

8 Hugo Gubion. 

9 Idem. 

10 Simon fil. Petri, et 
Hugo Gubion. 

1 1 Simon, for five years. 

16 Rob. fil. Gawini, for five 
years. 



Anno 

21 Hugo de Gundevill. 

22 Idem. 

23 Idem. 

24 Tho. fil. Bernardi, for six 

years. 

30 Tho. et Rad. Morin. 

31 Galfr. fil. Petri. 

32 Idem. 

33 Idem. 

RICHARD I. 

1 Gal. fil. Petri. 

2 Rich. Engaigne. 

3 Idem. 

4 Gal. fil. Petri, et 
Rob. fil. Radulph. 



522 



WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 



Anno 

5 Idem. 

6 Gal. et Simon de Patis- 

hull. 

7 Simon de Patishull, for 

four years. 

JOH. REG. 

1 Simon. Patishull, for five 
years. 

6 Rob. de Sancei, et 
Hen. films Petri. 

7 Idem. 

8 Pet. de Stores, et 
Gilb. Groc. 

9 Wai. de Preston, et 
Job. de Ulcot, ut Gustos. 

10 Walt, de Preston, ut Gus 

tos. 

11 Rob. de Braybrook, ut 

Gustos. 

12 Rob. ut Gustos. 

13 Rob. et Hen. fil. ejus. 

14 H. Braybrook, ut Gustos. 

15 Rob. et Hen. ut Gustos. 

16 Hen. de Braybrook, ut 

Gustos. 

17 Idem. 

HEN. III. 

1 Falc. de Breantre, et Rad. 

de Bray, for eight years. 
9 Rad. de Trublevil, et Rad. 

Wasbingbury, for four 

years. 
13 Steph. de Segne, et Will. 

de Marawast, for six 

years. 
19 Hen. de Rada, for five 

years. 

25 Will, de Coleworth. 

26 Idem. 

27 Alan, de Maidwell, for six 

years. 

33 Simon de Thorp. 

34 Idem. 

35 Rob. Basset. 

36 Idem. 

37 Will, de Insula. 



Anno 

38 Hugo de Manneby. 

39 Idem. 

40 Will, de Insula. 

41 Hugo de Manneby. 

42 Idem. 

43 Eustacius de Watford. 

44 Simon de Patishull. 

45 Idem. 

46 Idem. 

47 Alanus de Tash. 

48 Alanus de Insh. 

49 Idem. 

50 Idem. 

51 Warin. de Basingburn, et 
Job. de Oxenden Cl ic. 

52 Job. de Moyne, et 
Nich. de Maunden. 

53 Idem. 

54 Idem. 

55 Will, de Boyvill. 

EDWARD I. 

1 Will, de Bowvill. 

2 Gilb. de Kirkby, for five 

years. 

7 Tho. de Arden. 

8 Rob. de Band. 

9 Rob. de Band in Charta 

quidem Asp. H. for nine 
years. 

18 Job. Druell, for twelve 
years. 

30 Rob. de Veer. 

31 Job. de Ashton, for five 

years. 

EDWARD II. 
1 

2 Almaric. de Nodardus, et 
Simon de Greenhull. 

3 Job. de Willoughby. 

4 Idem. 

5 Idem. 

6 Gal. de Bradden. 

7 Tho. Wale. 

8 Eustac. de Barnby. 

9 Joh. de Ashton. 
10 Joh. de Hoby. 



SHERIFFS. 



523 



Anno 

11 Job. de Honby. 

12 Joh. et Egid. de Cugelio. 

13 Joh. de Honby, Egid. de 

Cugelio, et Joh. de Wit- 
tebur, Egid. de Cugegio, 
et Joh. de Wittlebur. 

14 Hum. de Basingburne, et 
Joh. Sto. Mauro. 

15 Hum. Basingburne. 
16 

1 7 Joh. de Sto. Mauro, et 
Joh. Daundelin. 

18 Joh. et Joh. 

19 Joh. Daudelin. 

EDWARD III. 

1 Will, de Sto. Mauro, et 
Simon de Lanshall. 

2 Will, de Sto. Mauro. 

3 Tho. Wake. 

4 Idem. 

5 Tho. de Buckton. 

6 Idem. 

7 Will. Lovell, for four 

years. 

11 Tho. Wake. 

12 Idem. 

13 Tho. Wake de Blisworth. 

14 Idem. 



Anno 

15 Idem. 

16 Tho. de Babenham. 

17 Tho. de Buckton. 

18 Rob. Pandeley. 

19 Idem. 

20 Idem. 

21 Walt. Paries. 

22 Idem. 

23 Rich. Blundel. 

24 Idem. 

25 Pet. Mallore. 

26 Walt. Paries. 

27 Idem. 

28 Idem. 

29 Joh. de Kaynes, for four 

years. 

33 Andre. Landwath. 

34 Walt. Paries. 

35 Rich. Wydevill, for eight 

years. 

43 Tho. de Preston. 

44 Idem. 

45 Ricn. Wydenell. 

46 Rob. Hotot. 

47 Simon Ward. 

48 Joh. Karnell. 

49 Tho. de Preston. 

50 Rob. Poteleyn. 

51 Joh Karnell. 



SHERIFFS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 



Anno 



RICHARD II. 

Name and Arms. 



Place. 

Preston. 



1 Tho. de Preston 

2 Joh. Lions. 

3 Joh. Paveley. 

Erm. on a fess Az. three crosses patee O. 

4 Joh. Widevill . . . Grafton. 

Arg. a fess and canton G. 

5 Johan. Lions. 

6 Ro. Atte Chaumbre. 

Arg. three chevrons S. 

7 Nich. Litlinges. 

8 Rog. Chaumbre . 

9 Joh. Widevill 

10 Joh. Paveley . . 

11 Ro. de la Chaumbre 

12 Rad. Paries. 



ut prius. 
ut prius. 
ut prius. 
ut prius. 



524 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

13 Job. Paveley, mil. . . ut prius. 

14 Joh. Widevill . . . . ut prius. 

15 Joh. Tindall .... Deane. 

Arg. a fess indented, and three crescents in chief G. 

16 Joh. Mallore .... Winewick. 

O. three lions passant guardant S. 

17 Johan. Mulsho. 

Erm. on a bend S. three goats heads erased Arg. 
armed O. 

18 Idem ut prius. 

19 Idem ut prius. 

20 Joh. Warwick. 

Cheeky G. and Az. a chevron Erm. 

21 Joh. Mulsho .... ut prius. 

22 Idem ut prius. 

HENRY IV. 

1 Joh. Warwike . . . ut prius. 

2 Joh. Cope Canons Ashby. 

Arg. on a chevron Az. betwixt three roses G. slipped and 

leaved three flower-de-luces O. 
Joh. Chetwood . . . Warkworth. 

Quarterly, Arg. and G. four crosses patee counter- 
changed. 

3 Egid. Malorye. 

4 Warm. Lucyen. 

5 Idem. 

6 Rich. Wedenhall. 

7 Tho. Widevill . . . ut prius. 

8 Rad. Grene .... Greens Norton. 

Az. three bucks trippant O. 

9 Rad. Paries. 

10 Tho. Mulsho .... ut prius. 

11 Tho. Widevill . . . ut prius. 

12 Mat. Swetenham. 

HENRY V. 

1 Tho. Wake . ... Blisworth. 

O. two bars and three torteaux in chief G. 

2 Rad. Grene .... ut prius. 

3 Tho. Widevill . . . ut prius. 

4 Tho. Grene, mil. . . ut prius. 

5 Joh. Manutell. 

6 Tho. Wake .... ut prius. 

7 Tho. Pilkinton. 

Arg. a cross patonce voided G. 

8 Tho. Wodevill . . . ut prius. 

9 Idem. . . . ut prius. 



SHERIFFS. 525 



HENRY VI. 

Anno Name. Place. 

1 Tho. Wodevill . . . ut prius. 

2 Tho. Holland .... Brackley. 

Az. semy de flower-de-luces a lion rampant guardant Arg. 

3 Johan. Wakerley. 

4 Job. Catesby .... Catesby, 

Az. two lions passant S. couronne O. 

5 Tho. Chaumbre . . . ut prius. 

6 Johan. Kivett. 

7 Tho. Widevill . . . Grafton. 

8 Georg. Longvill . . . Little Billing. 

G. a fess indented betwixt six cross croslets Arg. 

9 Will. Branuspatch. 

10 Joh. Colpeper. 

Arg. a bend engrailed G. 

11 Tho. Chaumbre . . . ut prius. 

12 Tho. Wodevill . . . ut prius. 

13 Tho. Wake .... ut prius. 

14 Joh. Holland, mil. . . ut prius. 

15 Will. Vaux Harrowden. 

Cheeky Arg. and G. on a chevron Az. three roses O. 

16 Rich. Widevill . . . ut prius. 

17 Tho. Chaumbre . . . lit prius. 

18 Eustat. Burnby. 

Arg. two bars a lion passant gardant in chief G. 

19 Tho. Holland .... ut prius. 

20 Tho. Green, mil. . . ut prius. 

21 Will. Catesby .... ut prius. 

22 Joh. Marbury. 

23 Hen. Green .... Drayton. 

Arg. a cross engrailed G. 

24 Walt. Mauntell. 

25 Tho. Wake . . . . ut prius. 

26 Joh. Holland, mil. . . ut prius. 

27 Eustat. Burnby . . . ut prius. 

28 Will. Vaux .... ut prius. 

29 Tho. Wake .... ut prius. 

30 Will. Catesby, arm. . . Ashby St. Legers. 

Arms, nt prius. 

31 Nich. Griffin, arm. . . Dingly. 

S. a griffin segreant Arg. 

32 Will. Vaux .... ut prius. 

33 Tho Green, mil. . . . ut prius. 

34 Will. Catesby, mil. . . ut prius. 

35 Nich. Griffin , mil. . ; ut prius. 

36 Tho. Green, arm. . . ut prius. 

37 Rob. Olney .... Catesby. 



526 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

38 Will. Mauntell, arm. 

EDWARD IV. 

1 Will. Fairfax, arm. 

Arg. three bars gemelles G. ; over all a lion rampant S. 

2 Tho. Walker, arm. 

3 Idem. 

4 Walt. Mountell. 

5 Hen. Green, arm. . . Draiton. 

Arms, ut prius. 

6 Hen. Hudleston. 

G. fretty Arg. 

7 Rad. Hastings. 

Arg. a maunch S. 

8 Rog. Salisbury, arm. 

G. a lion rampant Arg. crowned betwixt three crescents O. 

9 Guido Walston. 

10 Will. Newenham. 

11 Rad. Hastings . . . ut prius. 

12 John Hulcot. 

13 Hen. Hudleston . . . ut prius. 

14 Rich. Griffin, arm. . . ut prius. 

15 Ric. Knightly, arm. . Fawsley. 

Quarterly Erm. and O. three pales G. 

16 Nuttus Titulus in hoc Rotulo. 

17 Rog. Salsbury . . . ut prius. 

18 Will. Chaumbre . . . ut prius. 

19 Will Catesby, mil. . . ut prius. 

20 Will. Newenham. 

21 Rob. Pemberton, arm. . Rushden. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three buckets S. handled and 
hooped O. 

22 Tho. Lovell .... Astwell. 

Barry nebuly of six O. and G. 

RICHARD III. 

1 Wittelbury. 

Rog. Wake, arm. . . . ut prius. 
3 Rich. Burton, arm. 

Az. a fess between three talbots heads erased O. 

HENRY VII. 

1 Hen. Veer, ar. ... Addington. 

Quarterly G. and O. in the first a mullet Ar-. 

2 Rich. Knightly . . . ut prius. 

3 Guido Wolston. 

4 David Phillipps. 



SHERIFFS. 527 

Anno Name. Place. 

5 Tho. Haliswood. 

Arg. on a chevron G. three lozenges Erm. betwixt three 
owlets S. ; on a chief Az. three nut-trees O. 

6 Tho. Lovel, arm. . . . ut prius. 

7 Guid. Walston, mil. 

8 Rob. Witlebury. 

9 Joh. Danvers, arm. 

G, a chevron Arg. betwixt three mullets of six points O. 

10 Joh. Dyve, arm. . . . Haddon. 

Parti per pale Arg. and G. a fess Az. 

11 Nick. Vaux, mil. . . . ut prius. 

12 Will. Hertwell. 

13 Will. Salisbury, arm. . ut prius. 

14 Hum. Catesby, arm. . . ut prius. 

15 Rich. Burton, ar. . , ut prius. 

16 Fulc. Wodehull, a. 

17 Nich. Vaux, mil. . . . ut prius. 

18 Tho. Andrews, arm. . Harlston. 

G. a saltire O. surmounted with another Vert. 

19 Joh. Dyve, arm. . . ut prius. 

20 Rich. Griffin, mil. . . ut prius. 

21 Tho. Lovell, arm. . . ut prius. 

22 Joh. Tresham, arm. . . Rushton. 

Parti per saltire S. and O. six trefoils of the second. 

23 Tho. Cheyne, mil. 

Cheeky O. and Az. a fess G. fretty Erm. 

24 Joh. Mulshow, arm. . . ut prius. 

HENRY VIII. 

1 Tho. Parre, mil. . . Greenes-Norton. 

Arg. two bars Az. a border engrailed S. 

2 Ric. Knightley, mil. . ut prius. 

3 Joh. Spew, arm. 

4 Rad. Lane, arm. . . . Horton. 

Parti per pale Arg. and G. three saltires Arg. 

5 Joh. Catesby, arm. . . ut prius. 

6 Rob. Mathew, arm. . . Braden. 

7 Nich. Wodehull. 

8 Nich. Vaux, mil. , . ut prius. 

9 Will. Parre, mil. . . . ut prius. 

10 Will. Gascoigne. 

Arg. on a pale S. a luce s head erased O. 

11 Tho. Lucy, mil. 

G. crusuly O. three lucies hauriant Arg. 

12 Joh. Mulshow, arm. . ut prius. 

13 Will. Parre, mil. . . Horton. 

14 Joh. Clark, mil. 



528 WORTHIES OF NORTH AMPTONSHIRTC. 

15 Will. Fitz-Will. sen. . Milton. 

Lozengy Arg. and G. 

16 Tho. Tresham, arm . . utprius. 

17 Walt. Mauntel, mil. 

18 Hum. Stafford, mil. 

O.-a chevron G. and a quarter Erm. 

19 Nich. Odell, arm. 

20 Will. Fitz.-Will. mil. . utprius. 

21 Joh. Clarke, mil. . . Stamford. 

Az. fretty Arg. 

22 Rich. Cave, arm. 

Az. a fess Erm. betwixt six sea-mews heads crazed Arg. 

23 Will. Spencer, mil. . . Althorp. 
David Sissill, arm. . . Stamford. 

Barry of ten Arg. and Az. on six eschutcheons S. as many 
lions rampant of the first. 

24 David Cecill, arm. . . ut prius. 

25 Will. Parr, mil. . . . ut prius. 

26 Tho. Griffin, mil. . . ut prius. 

27 Joh. Clarke, mil. . . ut prius. 

28 Will. Newenham. 

29 Will. Parr, mil. . . . ut prius. 

30 Anth. Catesby, arm. . ut prius. 

31 Tho. Tresham, mil. . . utprius. 

32 Will. Newenham. 

33 Rob. Kikeman, mil. 

34 Rich. Catesby, mil. . . ut prius. 

35 Tho. Brudenell, arm. . Dean. 

Arg. a chevron G. betwixt three caps Az. turned up Er 
mine. 

36 Tho. Griffin, mil. . . ut prius. 

37 Joh. Cope, arm. 

38 Tho. Cave, arm. . . . ut prius. 

EDW. VI. 

1 Hum. Stafford, mil. . . ut prius. 

2 Tho. Tresham, mil. . . ut prius. 

3 Rich. Catesby, mil. . . ut prius. 

4 Tho. Andrews, arm. . . ut prius. 

5 Joh. Spencer, arm. . . ut prius. 

6 Tho. Lovell, arm. . . ut prius. 

PHIL, et MAR. 

1 Tho. Cave, mil. . . . ut prius. 

1.2 Val. Knightley, mil. . utprius. 

2.3 Tho. Tresham, mil. . . ut prius. 

3.4 Tho. Andrews, mil. . . ut prius. 

4.5 Joh. Fermor, mil. 

Arg. a fess S. betwixt three leopards heads erased G. 



SHERIFFS. 529 

Anno Name, Place. 

5,6 Job. Spencer, mil. . . ut prius. 

EL.IZ. REG. 

1 Edw. Montague, arm. . Boughton. 

Arg. three fusils in fess G. a border S. 

2 Tho. Lovell, arm. . . Astwell. 

Barry nebule of six O. and G. 

3 Tho. Spencer, arm. . . Althorp. 

Arg. a fess Ermin. betwixt sea-mews heads erased Arg. 

4 Tho. Catesby, arm. . . Ashby St. Legers. 

Arg. two lions passant S. couronne O. 

5 Rob. Lane, mil. . . . Horton. 

Parti per pale Az. and G. three saltires Arg. 

6 Edm. Brudenel, arm. . Dean. 

Arg. a chevron G. betwixt three caps Az. turned up Erm. 

7 Hum. Stafford, mil. . . Blatherwick. 

O. a chevron G. and a quarter Erm. 

8 Edw. Elmes, arm. . . Lilford. 

Erm. two bars S. each charged with five elm-leaves trans 
posed O. 

9 Ric. Knightley, mil. . Fawsley. 

Quarterly Erm. and O. three pales G. 

10 Tho. Andrews, arm. . CherwehV 

G. a cross O. surmounted of another Vert. 

11 Will. Sanders, arm. 

Parti per "pale S. and Arg. three elephants heads coun- 
terchanged. 

12 Ed. Mountague, mil. . ut prius. 

13 Joh. Spencer, mil. . . ut prius. 

14 Tho. Lovel, arm. . . ut prius. 

15 Tho. Tresham, arm. . . Rushton. 

Parti per saltire S. and O. six trefoils of the second. 

16 Edm. Onley, arm. 

17 Rog. Cave, arm. . . . Stanford. 

Az. fretty Arg. 

18 Tho. Brooke, arm. . . Great Oakley. 

O. on a fess Az. three escalops of the first. 

19 Edm. Brudnell, mil. . ut prius. 

20 Tho. Cecil, mil. . . . Burghley. 

Barry of ten Arg. and Az. on six escutcheons S. as many 
lions rampant of the first. 

21 Will. Chauncy, arm. . Edgecot. 

O. three chevronels engrailed G. 

22 Rich. Knightly, mil. . tit prius. 

23 Joh. Isham, arm. . . Longport. 

G. a fess and three piles in chief wavy, in point Arg. 

24 Edw. Griffin, arm. . . Dingley. 

S. a griffin surgeant Arg. 

VOL. II. 2 M 



530 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

Anno Name. Place. 

25 Job. Spencer, mil. . . ut prius. 

26 Euseb. I sham, arm. . . ut prius. 

27 Barth. Tate, arm. 

28 Tho. Andrews, arm. . . ut prius. 

29 Edw. Saunders, arm. . ut prius. 

30 Ed. Mountague, mil. . ut prius. 

31 Geor. Farmer, mil. . . Easton. 

Arg. a fess S. betwixt three leopards heads erased G. 

32 Job. Spencer, mil. , . ut prius. 

33 Edw. Watson, arm. . . Rockingbam. 

Arg. on a chevron engrailed Az. betwixt three martlets S. 
as many crescents O. 

34 Anth. Mildmay, arm. . Apethorp, 

Arg, three lions rampant Az. 

35 Thob. Chauncy, arm. . ut prius. 

36 Job. Read, arm. 

G. on a bend Arg. three shovellers S. beaked O. 

37 Edw. Mountague . . ut prius. 

38 Tho. Molsho, arm. . . Thingdon. 

Erm. on a bend S. three goats heads erased Arg. armed 
O. 

39 Rich. Chetwood, arm. 

40 Eras, Draydon, arm. . Canons Ashby. 

Az, a lion rampant; in chief a globe betwixt two stars O. 

41 Will. Browne, arm. 

42 Ed. Montague, arm. . ut prius. 

43 Rob. Spencer, mil. 

Quarterly, Arg. and G. the second and third charged with 
a fret O. ; over all on a bend S. three escalops of the 
first. 

44 Geo. Sherley, arm. . . Astwell. 

Paly of six O. and Az. a canton Erm. 

45 Wil. Tate, arm. et 1 Jac. 

JAC. REG. 

1 Will. Tate, arm. 

2 Art. Throgkmorton. 

G. on a chevron Arg. three bars gemellee S. 

3 Job. Freeman, arm. . . Great Billing. 

4 Will. Samuell, mil. 

5 Wil. Fitz-Will. mil. . . Milton. 

Lozengee Arg. and G. 

6 Tho. Elmes, arm. . . Greens-Norton. 

Arms, ut prius. 

7 Will. Saunders . . . ut prius. 

8 Tho. Tresham, mil. . . Newton. 

Arms, ut prius. 

9 Job. Isham, mil. . . . ut prius. 



SHERIFFS. 531 

Anno Name. Place. 

10 Euse. Andrews, mil. . id prius. 

11 Job. Wiseman, arm. 

S. a chevron betwixt three cronells (or spear burs) An>\ 

12 Will. Willmer, arm. . Sywell. 

13 God. Chibnall, arm. . Orlebere, 

14 Tho. Brooke, mil. . . ut prius* 

15 Hat. Farmer, mil. . . ut prius. 

16 Sim. Norwich, mil. . . Branton. 

17 Eras. Dryden, bar. . , at prius. 

18 Lodi. Pemberton, mil. . Rushton. 

Arg. a chevron betwixt three buckets S. handled and 
hooped O. 

19 Joh. Hanbury, mil. . . Kelmarsh. 

20 Mose. Troyoll, arm. 

-21 Edw. Shugburgh, arm, . Nazeb*. 

S. a chevron betwixt three mullets Arg, 
22 Wil. Chauncy, mil. . . ut prius. 

CAR. REG. 

1 Ric. Knightley, arm. . ut prius. 

2 Joh. Davers, mil. 

G. a chevron inter three mullets O. 

3 Joh. Worley, arm. . . Dodford. 

4 Hen, Robinson, mil. . Cransley. 

5 Tho. Elmes, arm. . . ut prius. 

6 Fran. Nicholls, arm. . Faxton. 

7 Joh. Hewett, bar. . . Hemington. 

S. a chevron counter-battille betwixt three owls Arg. 

8 Lo. Watson, mil. et bar. ut prius, 

9 Rich. Samwell, mil. 

10 Joh. Driden, bar. . . ut prius. 

1 1 Caro. Cokaine, arm. . . Rushton. 

Arg. three cocks G. 

12 Rob. Banaster, mil. 

Arg. a cross patee S. 

13 Joh. Handbury, mil. . ut prius. 

14 Phil. Hollman, arm. 

15 Chri. Yelverton, mil. . Easton. 

Arg. three lioncels rampant G. a chief of the second. 

16 Anth. Haslewood. 

17 Will. Wilmer, mil. 
18 

19 Edr. Farmer, arm. . . ut prius. 

20 Idem, 
21 

22 Will. Ward, arm. 

Az. a cross patee O. 

2 M 2 



532 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

HENRY VI. 

16. RICHARD WIDEVILL, alias WODEVILL. He was a 

vigorous knight, and married Jaquet duchess of Bedford, of 
most ancient extraction in this county, which (as it appears in 
the Ledger-book of Sopewell abbey) had flourished four gene 
rations before him at Grafton Honor in this county. Malicious, 
therefore, the cavil of Richard duke of York (which the stage 
poet hath got by the end), affirming " that they were made 
noble, who were not worth a noble ;" when this knight was, by 
his son-in-law king Edward the Fourth, created earl of Rivers ; 
and although his issue male failed in the next generation, yet 
am I confident, that besides the apparent royal line, an 
ordinary herald may, with little pains, derive all the ancient 
nobility of England from his six daughters, most honourably 
married. 

23. HENRY GREEN. He was a wealthy man (but of a 
different family from those of Greens-Norton, as appears by 
his arms), who first built the fair house of Drayton in this 
county. He had one sole daughter and heir, Constance, mar 
ried to John Stafford earl of Wiltshire, to whom she bare 
Edward Stafford, earl of Wiltshire, who died without issue ; so 
that her large inheritance devolved unto the family of the Veers ; 
of whom anon.* 

HENRY VII. 

I. HENRY VEER, Arm. He was son to Richard Veer, 
esquire, of Addington, by Isabel his wife, sister, and, at last, 
sole heir to Henry Green, of Drayton, esquire, of whom for 
merly, f This Henry was afterwards knighted ; and, dying 
without issue-male, Elizabeth his daughter and co-heir was 
married to John first lord Mordant, to whom she brought 
Drayton-house in this county, and other fair lands, as the par- 
tage of her portion. 

II. NICHOLAS VAUX, Mil. He was a jolly gentleman, both 
for camp and court, a great reveller, good as well in a march as 
a mask; being governor of Guines in Picardy, whom king 
Henry the Eighth, for his loyalty and valour, created baron of 
Harowden in this county, ancestor to Edward Lord Vaux, now 
living [1659.] 

This Sir Nicholas, when young, was the greatest gallant of 
the English court ; no knight, at the marriage of prince Arthur, 
appearing in so costly an equipage ; when he wore a gown of 
purple velvet, dight with pieces of gold, so thick and massive, 
that it was valued (besides the silk arid furs) at a thousand 

* In the first of King Henry VII. p. 182. ; f In the 23d of Henry VI. 



SHERIFFS. 533 

pounds ;* and the next day wore a collar of SS. which weighed 
(as goldsmiths reported) eight hundred pounds of nobles. 

Some will wonder, that Empsom and Dudley (the royal pro 
moters then in prime) did not catch him by the collar, or pick 
a hole in his gown, upon the breach of some rusty penal 
sumptuary statute ; the rather, because lately the earl of Oxford 
was heavily fined for supernumerous attendance. But know, that 
king lienry could better bear with gallantry than greatness in 
his subjects, especially when such expence cost himself nothing, 
and conduced much to the solemnity of his son s nuptials. 
Besides, such plate, as wrought, employed artizans ; as massive, 
retained its intrinsical value, with little loss, either of the own 
ers or commonwealth. 

HENRY VIII. 

1. THOMAS PAR, Mil. His former residence was at Kendal 
castle in Westmoreland, whence he removed into this county, 
having married Maud, one of the daughters and co-heirs of Sir 
Thomas Green, of Greens-Norton.* He was father to queen 
Katharine Par (which rendereth a probability of her nativity in 
this county), and to William marquis of Northampton ; of whom 
hereafter. 

15. WILLIAM FITZ-WILLIAMS, sen. Mil. This must be 
the person of whom I read this memorable passage in Stow s 
Survey of London :J 

" Sir William Fitz-Williams the elder, being a merchant- 
tailor, and servant sometime to cardinal Wolsey, was chosen 
alderman of Bread-street-ward in London, anno 1506. Going 
afterward to dwell at Milton in Northamptonshire, in the fall 
of the cardinal, his former master, he gave him kind entertain 
ment there, at his house in the country. For which deed^ being 
called before the king, and demanded how he durst entertain so 
great an enemy to the state, his answer was, that he had not 
contemptuously or wilfully done it ; but only because he had 
been his master, and (partly) the means of his greatest for 
tunes. 3 The king was so well pleased with his answer, that 
saying himself had few such servants, he immediately knighted 
him, and afterwards made him a privy councillor." 

But we have formerly spoken of the benefactions of this wor 
thy knight, in the county of Essex, whereof he was sheriff in 
the sixth of king Henry the Eighth. 

13. WILLIAM PAR, Mil. I have cause to be confident, that 
this was he who, being uncle and lord chamberlain to queen Ka 
tharine Par, was afterwards, by king Henry the Eighth, created 
baron Par of Horton. Left two daughters only, married into 

* Stow s Chronicle, page 483. 

f" Mills, in Catalogue of Honour, p. 1026. J Page 89. 



531 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

the families of Tressame and Lane. The reader is requested to 
distinguish him from his namesake nephew, sheriff in the 25th 
of this king s reign ; of whom hereafter. 

21. JOHN CLARKE, Mil. I find there was one Sir John 
Clarke, knight, who, in the fifth of Henry the Eighth, at the 
siege of Terrowane, took prisoner Lewis de Orleans, duke of 
Longevile, and marquis of Rotueline. This Sir John bare, for 
his paternal coat, Argent, on a bend Gules three swans proper 
between as many pellets. 

But afterwards, in memory of his service aforesaid, by special 
command from the king, his coat armour was rewarded with a 
canton sinister Azure, and thereupon a demi-ram mounting Ar 
gent, armed Or, between two flowers-de-luce in chief of the last ; 
over all a baton dexter-ways Argent, as being the arms of the 
duke his prisoner, and by martial law belonging to him-* 

He lieth buried in the next county, viz. in the church of Tame 
in Oxfordshire, where his coat and cause thereof is expressed 
on his monument. If this be not the same with Sir John 
Clarke our sheriff, I am utterly at a loss, and desire some other s 
courteous direction. 

All I will add is this : If any demand why this knight did 
only give a parcel and not the entire arms of the duke his pri 
soner, a learned antiquaryf returns this satisfactory answer : 
that he who taketh a Christian captive is to give but part of his 
arms (to mind him of charitable moderation in using his suc 
cess) ; intimating withal, that one taking a Pagan prisoner may 
justify the bearing of his whole coat by the laws of armoury. 

I must not conceal that I have read, in a most excellent ma 
nuscript, viz. the " View of Staffordshire," made by Sampson 
Erderswicke, esquire, that one William Stamford, in that 
county, had good land given him therein, for taking the duke 
of Longevile prisoner, August the 16th, in the fifth of king 
Henry the Eighth. History will not allow two dukes of Longe 
vile captives ; and yet I have a belief for them both, that Sir 
John Clarke and William Stamford were causa soda of his 
captivity; and the king remunerated them both, the former 
with an addition of honour, the latter with an accession of es 
tate. 

23. WILLIAM SPENCER, Miles ; and DAVID SISSILL, Arm. 

24. DAVID CECILL, Arm. Sir William Spencer dying [it 
seems] in his shrievalty, David Sissill supplied the remainder of 
that, and \vas sheriff the next year. This David had three times 
been alderman J of Stamford (part whereof, called Saint Mar- 

* Gwillirn s Display of Heraldry, page 2, edition l. 
t Camden, in Remains. 

The head officer of Stamford was then so styled ; see before in Lincolnshire. 
R. Butcher, in Survey of Stamford, p. 43. 



SHERIFFS. 535 

tin s, is in this county), viz. 1504, 1515, and 1526; and now 
twice sheriff of the county, which proves him a person both of 
birth, brains, and estate ; seeing, in that age, in this county so 
plentiful of capable persons, none were advanced to that office, 
except esquires at least of much merit. The different spelling 
of his name is easily answered, the one being according to his 
extraction, of the Sitsilts of Alterynnis in Herefordshire ; the 
other according to the vulgar pronunciation. All I will add is 
tKis, that his grandchild William Cecil (afterwards baron of 
Burghley, and lord treasurer of England), being born anno 1521, 
was just ten years of age in the shrievalty of this David his grand 
father.* 

25. WILLIAM PAR, Mil. He was son to Sir Thomas Par, 
of whom before. Ten years after, viz. in the 35th year of his 
reign, king Henry the Eighth (having newly married his sister 
queen Katharine Par), made him Lord Par of Kendall, and earl 
of Essex, in right of Anne Bourcher his wife. 

King Edward the Sixth created him marquis of Northamp 
ton. Under queen Mary, he was condemned for siding with 
queen Jane ; but pardoned his life, and restored to his lands, as 
by queen Elizabeth to his honour. Much was he given to mu 
sic and poetry ; and wanted not personal valour, not unskilful, 
though unsuccessful, in military conduct, as in the employment 
against Ket. He died anno Domini 1571, without issue. 

QUEEN MARY. 

2, 3. THOMAS TRESS AM, Mil. He was a person of great 
command in this county, and was zealous (against the court fac 
tion) in proclaiming and promoting queen Mary to the crown. 
She therefore, in gratitude, made him the first and last lord 
prior of the re-erected order of St. John of Jerusalem. Dying 
without issue, and being buried in Rushton church, his large 
lands descended to his kinsman and heir Thomas Tressam; 
of whom hereafter. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

6. EDMUND BRUDENELL, Arm. This is that worthy per 
son, of whom (afterwards knighted) Master Camden entereth 
this honourable memorial :f " E quibus Edmundus Brudenel, 
Eques auratus, non ita pridem defunctus, venerandse antiquitatis 
summis fuit cultor et admirator." He may seem to have entail 
ed his learned and liberal inclinations and abilities, on his (though 
not son) heir, Thomas Lord Brudenell of Stoughton, than whom 
none of our nobility more able in the English antiquities. 

15. THOMAS TRESSAM, Arm. The queen knighted him, in 

* 

* Camden s Elizabeth, in anno 1598. f Britannia, in Northamptonshire. 



53G WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

the 18th year of her reign, at Kenil worth. Hard to say whether 
greater his delight or skill in buildings, though more forward in 
beginning than fortunate in finishing his fabrics ; amongst which 
the market house at Rothwell, adorned with the arms of the 
gentry of the county, was highly commendable. Having many 
daughters, and being a great housekeeper, he matched most of 
them into honourable, the rest of them into worshipful and 
wealthy, families. He was zealous in the Romish persuasion 
(though as yet not convicted), which afterwards cost him a long 
confinement in Wisbeach castle. 

.20, THOMAS CECILL, Mil. He was eldest son to Sir Wil 
liam Cecill, then baron of Burghley, who would not have him 
by favour excused from serving his country. He afterwards was 
earl of Exeter ; and married Dorothy, one of the coheirs of the 
Lord Latimer. These jointly bestowed one hundred and eight 
pounds per annum on Clare-hall in Cambridge. 

28. THOMAS ANDREWS, Arm. He attended the execution 
of the queen of Scots at Fotheringhay castle, demeaning himself 
with much gravity, to his great commendation.* 

34. ANTHONY MILDMAY, Esq. He was son to Sir Walter, 
privy-councillor, and founder of Emanuel College. This Anthony 
was by queen Elizabeth knighted, and sent over into France on 
an embassy ; upon the same token he was at Geneva the same 
time (reader, I have it from uncontrollable intelligence) w r hen 
Theodore Beza, their minister, was convented before their 
Consistory, and publicly checked for preaching too eloquently ; 
he pleaded, " that what they called eloquence in him, was not 
affected but natural ; and promised to endeavour more plain 
ness for the future." Sir Anthony, by grace co-heir to Sir Henry 
Sherington, had one daughter, Mary, married to Sir Francis 
Fane, afterwards earl of Westmoreland. 

43. ROBERT SPENCER, Mil. He was the fifth knight of his 
family in an immediate succession,t well allied and extracted, 
being a branch descended from the Spencers earls of Gloucester 
and Win Chester 4 By king James, in the first of his reign, he 
was created baron Spencer of Wormeleiton in the county of 
Warwick. He was a good patriot, of a quick and clear spirit, 
as by one passage may appear. 

Speaking in parliament of the valour of their English ances 
tors, in defending the liberties of the nation ; " Your ancestors/ 
said the earl of ArundeL, " were keeping of sheep (that lord and 
his predecessors being known for the greatest sheep-masters in 
England) when those liberties were defended."" If they were 

* Camden s Elizabeth, anno 1587. 

t Camden s Britannia, in Northamptonshire. 

j Guillim s Display of Heraldry, p. 274, first edition. 



SHERIFFS. 537 

in keeping of sheep," returned the other, " yours were then in 
plotting of treason." Whose animosities for the present cost both 
of them a confinement ; yet so that afterwards the Upper House 
ordered reparations to this lord Spencer, as first (and cause 
lessly) provoked.* 

This lord was also he who, in the first of king James, was 
sent (with Sir William Dethick, principal King of Arms) to 
Frederick duke of Wirtemburg, elected into the order of the 
Garter ; to present and invest him with the robes and orna 
ments thereof, which were accordingly, with great solemnity, 
performed in the cathedral of Stutgard.f 

KING JAMES. 

2. ARTHUR THROGKMORTON, Mil. He was son to that 
eminent knight, Sir Nicholas Throgkmorton (of whom in War 
wickshire) ; and his sister was married to Sir Walter Raleigh. 
This Sir Arthur was a most ingenious gentleman ; and, dying 
without issue-male, his large estate was parted amongst his 
four daughters, married to the lord Dacres, the lord Wotton, 
Sir Peter Temple of Stow, baronet, and Sir Edward Par 
tridge. 

3. JOHN FREEMAN, Arm. He died without issue; and 
was a most bountiful benefactor to Clare-hall in Cambridge ; 
giving two thousand pounds to the founding of fellowships 
and scholarships therein. 

12. WILLIAM WILLMER, Arm. He was the first pensioner, 
as doctor James Montague the first master, and Sir John Brew- 
erton first scholar, of the house in Sidney College ; being all 
three of them (but in several proportions) benefactors to that 
foundation. 

22. WILLIAM CHAUNCY, Mil. These have been very (but 
I know not how) ancient in this county, but far ancienter in 
Yorkshire ; for I meet with this inscription on a monument at 
Sabridgeworth in Hertfordshire : 

"Hie jacent Johannes Chancy, An, filius et heres Johannis Chancy, Ar., filii 
et heredis Willielmi Chancy, Mil. quondam Baronis de Shorpenbek in com. Ebor., 
et Anna uxor ejus, una filiarum Johannis Leventhorp, Ar., qui quidem Johannes 
obiit vn Maii MCCCCLXXIX. et Anna, n Decemb. MCCCCLXXVII. quorum ani- 
mabus . . . . 

It appeareth to me, by a well-proved pedigree, that Henry 
Chancy, Esq. of Yardlebury in Hertfordshire is the direct 
descendant from the aforesaid John Chancy, whose epitaph we 
have inserted. 

* Wilson, in the Life of King James. f Stow s Chronicle, p. 128. 



538 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 



KING CHARLES. 

7- JOHN HEWET, Bart. He had not one foot of land nor 
house (hiring Hemington of the lord Montague) in the whole 
county, though several statutes* have provided that the sheriff 
should have sufficient land in the same shire to answer the king 
and his people. The best is, this baronet had a very fair estate 
elsewhere. And, as our English proverb saith, " What is lost 
in the hundred will be found in the shire ; " so what was lost 
in the shire would be found in the land. However, this was 
generally beheld as an injury ; that, because he had offended a 
great courtier, the shrievalty was by power imposed upon him, 

THE FAREWELL. 

The worst I wish this my native county is, that Nine (a river 
which some will have so termed from nine tributary rivulets) 
were Ten ; I mean, made navigable from Petersburgh to North 
ampton ; a design which hath always met with many back 
friends, as private profit is (though a secret) a sworn enemy to 
the general good. 

Sure I am, the Hollanders (the best copy of thrift in Chris 
tendom) teach their little ditches to bear boats. Not that their 
waters are more docible in this kind than ours ; but they are 
the more ingenious and industrious schoolmaster of the lesson 
of public advantage, making every place in their province to 
have access unto every place therein by such cheap trans 
portation. 



WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE WHO HAVE FLOURISHED 
SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER, 

Dr. Stephen ADDINGTON, learned dissenting divine and author ; 

born at Northampton 1729 ; died 1796. 
Sir William ADDINGTON, a magistrate and author ; born at 

Litchborough 1749. 
Vincent ALSOP, author and nonconformist divine ; born at 

Wilby; died 1703. 
Caleb ASHWORTH, dissenting divine, tutor, arid author; born 

1709; died 1774. 
Matthew BARKER, author and nonconformist divine; born at 

Cransley; died 1698. 
Ralph BATIIURST, divine, physician, and Latin poet; born at 

Hawthorpe 1620; died 1704. 

* 9 Edward II. Lincolnshire ; 4 Edward III. c. 9 ; 5 Edward III. c. 4. 



WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 539 

Edward BERNARD, mathematician, astronomer,, Orientalist, and 

critic; born at Paulers Pury 1638; died 1697. 
Sir John BLENCOWE, M.P., justice of the King s Bench ; born 

at Marston St. Lawrence 1642; died 1726. 
William BLENCOWE, third son of the judge, decipherer to the 

Government; born at Marston St. Lawrence 1682-3; died 

1712. 

William BURKITT, commentator on the New Testament; born 
at Hitcham 1650; died 1703. 

Alban BUTLER, learned catholic divine and historian of the 
Saints ; born at Apletree 1710 ; died 1773. 

William CAREY, LL.D. Oriental scholar; born at Paulers- 
^ Pury 1761; died 1834. 

Esther CHAPONE, poet and moralist; born at Twywell 1727 ; 
died 1801. 

Samuel CLARKE, divine and Orientalist ; born at Brackley 1624 ; 
died 1669. 

Thomas COGAN, physician and author on ethical philosophy 
^ and theology ; born at Rowell 1736; died 1818. 

Elisha COLES, author of " Practical Discourses of God s Sove 
reignty;" died 1688. 

Elisha COLES, nephew of the preceding, lexicographer; born 
1640; died 1684. 

Philip DODDRIDGE, D.D. learned dissenting divine arid com 
mentator; born at Northampton 1702 ; died 1751. 

John DRYDEN, dramatic, political, and satirical poet and trans 
lator; born at Aid winkle All Saints 1631 ; died 1700. 

John FREIND, physician, politician, and elegant writer ; born 
at Croughton 1675; died 1728. 

Robert FREIND, brother of John, scholar, celebrated for Latin 
epitaphs; born at Croughton 1667; died 1751. 

Francis GASTRELL, bishop of Chester, author of " Christian 
Institutes;" born at Slapton 1662; died 1725. 

Dr. John GILL, baptist, Orientalist, commentator on the Bible; 
born at Kettering 1697; died 1771. 

Simon GUNTON, historian of the cathedral, Peterborough ; died 
1676. 

James HERVEY, author of " Meditations," pious divine ; born 
at Hardingstone 1713-14; died 1758. 

Sir John HILL, physician, voluminous writer, butt of the wits ; 
born at Peterborough 1716; died 1775. 

Selina Countess of HUNTINGDON, charitable founder of sixty- 
four chapels, some colleges and seminaries ; born at Astwell 
1707; died 1791. 

George JEFFREYS, poet and miscellaneous writer ; born at . 
Weldon 1678; died 1755. 

William JONES, divine, institutor of the " British Critic ;" born 
at Lowick 1726; died 1800. 



540 WORTHIES OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 

William LAW, nonjuring divine, author of " Serious Call ;" 

bom at King s Cliffe 1686; died 1761. 
Sir Creswell LEVINZ, justice of Common Pleas, and author ; 

born at Evenley 1627; died 1700-1. 
Owen MANNING, divine, and historian of Surrey; born at 

Orlingbury 1721 ; died 1801. 
Charles MONTAGUE, first earl of Halifax, K.G. Maecenas," 

statesman and poet; born at Horton 1661 ; died 1715. 
John NEWTON, astronomer and mathematician ; born at Oun- 

dle 1622; died 1678. 
Richard NEWTON, divine, founder of Hertford College, Oxford ; 

born at Yardley Hastings 1675 ; died 1753. 
William PALEY, divine, philosopher, and theologian ; born at 

Peterborough 1/43; died 1805. 
Samuel PARKER, bishop of London, historian of his own times ; 

born at Northampton 1640; died 1687. 
John PARKHURST, divine, lexicographer, and critic; born at 

Catesby 1728; died 1797- 
Thomas PAYNE, " honest Tom Payne," bookseller and biblio- 

polist; born at Brackley 1717 ; died 1799. 
Philip THICKNESSE, lively writer, and eccentric character ; born 

at Farthinghoe 1719 ; died 1792. 
Leonard WELSTED, poet, satirized by Pope ; born at Abington 

1689; died 1747. 
Daniel WHITBY, learned divine, author of "Commentaries," 

&c. ; born at Kushden 1638 ; died 1726. 
John WILKINS, bishop of Chester, philosopher ; born at Faws- 

ley 1614 ; died 1672. 
Thomas WOOLSTON, divine, and author of some works of a 

deistical tendency; born at Northampton 1669; died 1732-3. 



%* The county of Northampton has been fortunate in its topographers. Nor- 
den appears amongst the earliest of its historians. He laid the foundation for the 
History of the County hy John Bridges, which was edited by the Rev. P. WhaHey, 
in 2 vols. fol. 1791. In 1822, a very superior edition, in folio, was undertaken by 
Mr. Geo. Baker, which occupied many years attention, and certainly reflects 
great credit on the enterprising spirit and indefatigable research of the author. 
Other local histories and descriptions have also made their appearance ; as the Rev. 
S. Gunton s History of Peterborough (1686); the Rev. J. Mastin s History of 
Naseby (1792) ; Guide to Burleigh (1815) ; Rev. H. K. Bonney s Historic Notices 
of Fotheringhay (1821); Cole s History of Weston Favell (1827), &c. ED. 



NORTHUMBERLAND, 



NORTHUMBERLAND hath the bishopric of Durham (separated 
by the river Derwent running into Tyne) on the south ; Cumber 
land on the south-west ; the German Ocean on the east ; and 
Scotland on the north and west ; parted with the river Tweed, 
Cheviot hills, and elsewhere (whilst our hostility with the Scots) 
mutuo metu, with mutual fear, now turned into mutual faith, 
both nations knowing their own, and neither willing to invade, 
the bounds of others. 

It is somewhat of a pyramidal form, whose basis, objected to the 
south, extendeth above forty, whilst the shaft thereof, narrowing 
northward, ascendeth to full fifty miles. Nature hath not been 
over indulgent to this county in the fruitfulness thereof ; yet it is 
daily improved, since (to use the prophet s expression) they 
have beat their swords into plough- shares, and spears into 
pruning-hooks ;* and surely such plough-shares make the best 
furrows, and such comfortable pruning-hooks cut Math the best 
edge. 

It must not be forgotten, how, before the uniting of England 
with Scotland, there lay much waste ground in the northern 
part of this county, formerly disavowed, (at leastwise not owned 
by any) only to avoid the charges of the common defence. f But 
afterward, so great, sudden, and good the alteration, that, the 
borders becoming safe and peaceable, many gentlemen inhabiting 
thereabouts, finding the ancient waste ground to become 
very fruitful, in the fourth of king James put in their claims, 
and began to contend in law about their bounds, challenging their 
hereditary right therein. 

THE BUILDINGS. 

One cannot rationally expect fair fabrics here, where the vi 
cinity of the Scots made them to build not for state but 
strength. Here it was the rule with ancient architects, " what 
was firm, that was fair -" so that it may be said of the houses of 
the gentry herein, " Quot mansiones, tot munition es," as either 

* Isaiah ii. 4-. f Stow s Chronicle, p. 819. 



542 WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 

being all castles or castle-like, able to resist (though no solemn 
siege) a tumultary incursion. 

Before we come to the WORTHIES of this county, be it pre 
mised, that Northumberland is generally taken in a double ac- 
ception ; first, as a county, (whose bounds we have fore-assigned) ; 
and secondly, as a kingdom, extending from Humber to Edin 
burgh-Frith, and so taking in the southern part of Scotland, 
Here then we have an opportunity to cry quits with Demster the 
Scottish historian, and to repair ourselves of him for challenging 
so many Englishmen to be Scots ; should we bring all them in 
for Northumberlanders which were born betwixt Berwick and 
Edinburgh, whose nativities we may, in the rigour of right, justify 
to be English, if born therein whilst the tract of ground was 
subjected to the Saxon heptarchy. But, because we will have 
an unquestionable title to what we claim to be ours, we are con 
tent to confine ourselves to Northumberland in the county ca 
pacity thereof. 

PROVERBS. 

" To carry coals to Newcastle. ] 

That is to do what was done before ; or to busy one s self in 
a needless employment. Parallel to the Latin, " Aquam 
mari infundere," " Sidera coelo addere/ " Noctuas Athenas," 
(to carry owls to Athens), which place was plentifully furnished 
before with fowl of that feather. 

" From Berwick to Dover, three hundred miles over."] 

That is, from one end of the land to the other. Semnable the 
Scripture expression, " From Dan to Beersheba." Such the 
the Latin proverbs, " A carceribus ad metam ;" " A capite ad 
calcem ;" when one chargeth through an employment, from 
the beginning to the end thereof. 

" To take Hector s cloak."] 

That is to deceive a friend who confideth on his faithfulness ; 
and hereon a story doth depend. When Thomas Percy, earl of 
Northumberland, anno 15 69, was routed in the rebellionyhichhe 
had raised against queen Elizabeth, he hid himself in the house 
of one Hector Armstrong, of Harlow, in this county, having con 
fidence he would be true to him, who, notwithstanding, for 
money betrayed him to the Regent of Scotland. .It was observed 
that Hector, being before a rich man, fell poor of a sudden, and 
so hated generally, that he never durst go abroad, insomuch that 
the proverb "To take Hector s cloak,"* is continued to this day 
among them, when they would express a man that betrayeth 
his friend who trusted him. 

" We will not lose a Scot."] 

That is, "we will lose nothing, how inconsiderable soever, 

* Bishop Carleton, in thankful rememhrance. 



PROVERBS. 543 



which we can save or recover." Parallel to the Scripture ex 
pression, " We will not leave an hoof behind us/ * The pro 
verb began in the English borders, when during the enmity 
betwixt the two nations, they had little esteem of, and less 
affection for, a Scotchman ; and is now happily superseded, since 
the union of England and Scotland into Great Britain. 

" A Scottish mist may wet an Englishman to the skin."] 

That is, " Small mischiefs in the beginning, if not seasonably 
prevented, may prove very dangerous." This limitary proverb 
hath its original in these parts, where mists may be said to have 
their fountain north, but fall south of Tweed, arising in Scotland, 
and driven by the winds into England, where they often prove 
a sweeping and soaking rain. Sure I am, our late civil war be 
gan there, which since hath wet many an Englishman in his own 
heart s blood ; and whether at last the Scotch have escaped dry, 
that is best known to themselves. 

" A Scottishman and a Newcastle grind-stone, travel all the world over. !> ] 

The Scots (gentry especially), when young, leave their native 
land (hard their hap if losers by their exchange), and travel into 
foreign parts, most for maintenance, many for accomplish 
ment. Now no ship sets safe to sea without a carpenter, no 
carpenter is able without his tools, no tools useful without a 
grind-stone, no grindstone so good as those of Newcastle. Some 
indeed are fetched from Spain, but of so soft a grit that they are 
not fit for many purposes. Hence it is that these grindstones, 
though mostly in motion, may be said fixed to ships as most 
necessary thereunto. 

" If they come, they come not ;" 

And, 
" If they come not, they come."] 

We must fetch an CEdipus from this county, to expound this 
riddling proverb, customary in the wars betwixt the crowns of 
England and Scotland . For the cattle of people living hereabout, 
turned into the common pasture, did, by instinct and custom, re 
turn home at night, except violently intercepted by the free 
booters and borderers, who, living between two kingdoms, 
owned no king, whilst " Vivitur ex rapto/ (catch who catch may). 
Hence many in these parts, who had an herd of kine in the 
morning, had not a cow-tail at night, and alternately proved 
rich and poor by the trade aforesaid. If therefore these bor 
derers came, their cattle came not ; if they came not, their cat 
tle surely returned. Now although a sprig of these borderers 
hath lately been revived (disguised under the new name of moss 
troopers); yet the union of the two kingdoms hath, for the 
main, knocked this proverb out of joint, never (I hope) to be 
wholly set again. 



* Exod. x. 26. 



544 WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 

SCOTTISH PROVERBS CURRENT IN THIS COUNTY. 

" Lang or ye cut Falkland-wood with a penknife."*] 

It is spoken of such who embrace unproportionable and im 
probable means to effect the ends propounded to themselves, to 
as much purpose as to lave the sea with a cockle shell. Falk 
land was one of the king of Scotland s royal palaces in Fife, 
having a bonny wood (whereof great want in the south of this 
land, where one can hardly find a stick to beat a dog) about it ; 
so that an axe is proper, and no penknife (fit only to fell a 
forest of feathers with the timber of quills therein) for such 
employment. 

" He is an Aberdeen s man.f taking his word again."] 

It seems the men of that town, a fair haven in the county of 
Mar, have formerly been taxed for breach of promise. I hope 
if true (if ever of either) only of the old Aberdeen, now much 
decayed, and famous only for salmon-fishing. If of the new, 
then I believe it of the townsmen, not scholars living in the 
university, founded by bishop Elphinstone. However, we have 
formerly observed.^ what is to be believed in such satirical 
proverbs. 

He was born in August."] 

At the first hearing thereof, I took it for a fortunate person, 
that month beginning the return of profit for the pains of the year 
past. I know amongst the Latins some months were counted more 
unhappy than others, witness the by-word " Mense Maio nu- 
bunt male." But, since, I perceive a man may miss his mark, 
as well by over as under shooting it, and one may be too seri 
ous in interpreting such common speeches : for I am informed 
by a Scottish man, that it is only the periphrasis of a liquorish 
person, and such said to be born in August, whose tongues will 
be the tasters of every thing they can come by, though not be 
longing to them. 

" A Yule feast may be quat at Pasche. ] 

That is, Christmas cheer may be digested, and the party 
hungry again, at Easter. No happiness is so lasting, but in 
short time we must forego and may forget it. The northern 
parts call Christmas Yule (hence the yule-block, yule-oaks, yule- 
songs, &c.), though much difference about the cause thereof. 
Some, more enemies to the ceremory than the cheer of Christ 
mas, to render that festival the more offensive, make the word 
of Paganish extraction, deriving it from lulus the son of ./Eneas ; 
an etymology fetched far from England, and farther from truth. 

But, to omit many forced and feigned deductions, that worthy 
doctor hits the mark, bringing it from the Latin jubilo (a word 

Scottish Proverbs, by David Fergusson, minister at Dunfermline, Litera L. 

t Scottish Proverbs, ut supra, lit. H. 

J Proverbs in Gloucestershire, " You are a man of Duresly." 

Dr. Henry Hammond. 



SAINTS PRELATES. 545 

as ancient as Varro), signifying the rural shouting for joy, so 
that it is a name general for festivals, as Lammas Yule, &c. 
though Christmas be so called without any addition, as the feast 
k-ar efrxrjv. above all others. It is more than probable that the 
Latins borrowed their jubilo from the Hebrew 7HV, the long 
sound of the trumpet, whence their Jubilee got the name. And 
seeing Christ s birth was a freeing us from the slavery of sin, I 
see not how Yule can be cavilled at in that signification. 

SAINTS. 

Saint EBBA was born in Northumberland, being daughter to 
Edilfrid the king thereof. When her father was taken prisoner, 
she got hold of a boat in Humber; and, passing along the 
raging ocean, she safely landed at a place in Merch in Scotland, 
which is called the promontory of Saint Ebb unto this day. 

Becoming prioress of Coldingham in that country, to preserve 
her own and fellow-nuns chastity from the pagan Danes, she 
cut off her own nose, and persuaded the rest to do the like ; 
that their beauty might be no bait, whilst their deformity did 
secure their virginity. Sure I am, that since, more have lost 
their noses in prosecution of their wantonness, than in preser 
vation of their chastity. As for the Danes, being offended that 
these nuns would not be the objects of their lusts, they made 
them the subjects of their fury, burning them and their monas 
tery together. 

But such the reputed holiness of Saint Ebb, that many 
churches, commonly called Saint Tabbs,* are in North-England 
dedicated unto her, and her memory is continued in the name 
of Ebb-Chester, a little village in the bishopric of Durham. 
She flourished about the year 630. 

PRELATES SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

GEORGE CARLETON was born in this county (nigh the bor 
ders of Scotland) at Norham, his father being the keeper of the 
important castle therein ; bred in Merton college in Oxford. 
Hear what our English antiquaryf saith of him, " Whom I have 
loved in regard of his singular knowledge in divinity, which he 
professeth ; and in other more delightful literature, and am 
loved again of him, &c." He was one of the four divines sent 
by king James to the Synod of Dort, each of them there ob 
served in their respective eminencies : " In Carletono prseluce- 
bat Episcopalis gravitas, in Davenantio subactum judicium ; in 
Wardo multa lectio ; in Hallo expedita concionatio." Doctor 
Carleton \vas then bishop of Llandaff, and afterwards of Chi- 
chester. His good affections appear in his treatise, entituled, 
"A thankful remembrance of God s mercy;" solid judgment, 
in his " Confutation of Judicial Astrology ;" and clear invention, 

^ * Camden s Britannia, p. 745. 

f Camden s Britannia i;i Northumberland, p. 816 
VOL, II. 2 N 



546 WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 

in other juvenile exercises. Indeed, when young, he was grave 
in his manners ; so when old he was youthful in his parts, even 
unto his death, which happened in the first of king Charles. 

VALENTINE GARY was born at Berwick (which, though 
north of Tweed, is reduced to this county) extracted from the 
Carys, barons of Hunsdon.* He was first scholar of Saint 
John s-college in Cambridge, then fellow of Christ s College, 
afterwards of St. John s again, and at last master of Christ s 
College ; so that I meet not with any his peer herein, thus 
bounded and re-bounded betwixt two foundations. But the best 
is, they both had one and the same foundress, Margaret 
countess of Richmond, He was vice-chancellor of Cambridge, 
anno 1612 ; dean of Saint Paul s ; and at last bishop of Exeter ; 
a complete gentleman and excellent scholar. He once unex 
pectedly owned my nearest relation in the high commission 
court, when in some distress ; for which courtesy, I, as heir to 
him who received the favour, here publicly pay this my due 
thanks unto his memory. 

Though some contest happened betwixt him and the city of 
Exeter ; yet, I am credibly informed, when that city was visited 
with the sickness, he was bountiful above expectation, in reliev 
ing the poor thereof. He died anno Domini 1626; and lies 
buried under a plain stone in the church of Saint Paul s, Lon 
don^ though he hath another monument of memorial in the 
church of Exeter. 

RICHARD HOLEWORTH, D. D. was born at Newcastle in this 
county ; preferred fellow of Saint John s College in Cambridge, 
rector of Saint Peter s in the poor of London, archdeacon of 
Huntingdon, and at last master of Emanuel College. 

During his continuance in London, he did " dominari in con- 
cionibus ; " and although it be truly observed, that the people 
in London honour their pastors (as John Baptist) Trpoe w pav, for 
an hour (or short time), yet this doctor had his hour measured 
him by a large glass, continuing in public esteem till the begin 
ning of these civil wars : when the times turned, and he, stand 
ing still, was left to the censure of factious innovators. 

Most candid his disposition ; and, if he had the infirmity of 
ingenious persons, to be choleric, he prevented others checking 
it in him, by checking it first in himself. 

He suffered long imprisonment in Ely-house and the Tower, 
for a sermon he made when vice-chancellor of Cambridge ; and 
at last, restored to his liberty, waited on his majesty in the Isle 
of Wight. He is here entered amongst the bishops, because 
proffered Bristol, but refused it ; and such who know least of 
his mind, are most bold to conjecture the cause of it. He slight- 

* Parker, in his Sceletos Cantab. MS. f Survey of London, p. 776. 



PRELATES SOLDIERS. 547 

ed not the smallness thereof 5 because, such his manners, loyalty, 
and conscience, that he would have thanked his sovereign for 
an injury, much more for a smaller courtesy. Wherefore such 
only shoot by the aim of their own fancies, who report him to 
have said, "he would not wear a Bristol stone." 

Sure I am that England had, if any more able, none more 
zealous to assert episcopacy ; and let that suffice us, that he es 
teemed the acceptance thereof, in that juncture of time, unsafe 
and unseasonable for himself. He afterwards took the deanery 
of Worcester ; though he received no profit, the place received 
honour from him, being the last who was entitled (and indeed 
it was no more) with that dignity. 

Pity it is so learned a person left no monuments (save a ser 
mon) to posterity ; for I behold that posthume work as 
none of his, named by the transcriber, " The Valley of Vision," 
a scripture expression,* but here misplaced. Valley it is in 
deed, not for the fruitfulness but lowness thereof (especially if 
compared to the high parts of the pretended author), but little 
vision therein. This I conceived myself in credit and consci 
ence concerned to observe, because I was surprised to preface to 
the book ; and will take the blame, rather than clear myself, when 
my innocency is complicated with the accusing of others. 

Dying about the year 1650, he was buried in his own parish 
church, in Saint Peter s, Broad Street : his ancient friend Doc 
tor Jefferies of Pembroke-hall taking for his text, " My days are 
like a shadow that decline ;"f Thomas Rich and Richard Abdi, 
esquires, his executors and worthy friends, ordering his funeral 
with great solemnities and lamentation. 

SOLDIERS. 

To speak of this county in general, it breedeth most hardy 
men. He who deduced the Merches (so truly called from mercke 
a limitary "bound) from frequent marching and warlike expedi 
tions therein, missed the word, but hit the matter. These bor 
derers have been embroiled in several battles against the Scotch ; 
witness the battle of Chevy-Chase, whereof Sir Philip Sidney J 
is pleased to make this mention. " Certainly I must confess 
my own barbarousness, I never heard the old song of Percy and 
Douglas, that I found not my heart moved more than with a 
trumpet, and yet it is sung but by some blind crowder, with no 
rougher voice than rude style ; which being so evil apparelled 
in the dust and cobweb of that uncivil age, what would it work 
trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindar ? 

True it is, the story is not true in the letter and latitude 
thereof ; no earl of Northumberland being ever killed in Chevy- 
Chase, as by the perusal of the ensuing catalogue will appear, 

* Isaiah xxii. 1.5. f. Psalm cii. 11. 

t In his " Defence of Poesie." 

2 N 2 



548 WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 

1. Henry Percy, the first earl, lost his life in a battle against 
king Henry the Fourth, anno Domini 1408. 

2. Henry Percy his grandchild, the second earl, was slain on 
the side of king Henry the Sixth, against king Edward the 
Fourth, anno 1455. 

3. Henry his son, taking part with king Henry the Sixth, 
was slain at Touton-field, in the first of king Edward the Fourth. 

4. Henry his son, promoting a tax for the king, was killed, in 
a tumultuous rout at Cockledge, eighteen miles from York, in 
the fourth of king Henry the Seventh. 

5. Henry his son, died a natural death, in the eighteenth of 
king Henry the Eighth. 

6. Henry his son, died peaceably at Hackney near London, 
the nine and twentieth of king Henry the Eighth, in whose 
reign the scene is laid for the aforesaid tragedy in Chevy- Chase. 

This I thought fit to have said, partly, to undeceive people, 
lest long possession might create a title in their belief to the 
prejudice of truth ; partly, that the noble family of the Percys 
(what need a good head of hair wear a perriwig ?), for birth and 
valour equal to any subjects in Christendom, should not be be 
holding to an untruth to commend their martial achievement, 
Yet, though there be more fancy in the varnish, there is much 
faith in the groundwork of this relation, presenting a four-fold 
truth to posterity. First, that on light causes heavy quarrels 
have happened betwixt the Scotch and English in the borders. 
Secondly, that the Percys,* with other families in this county 
(mentioned in this ballad) were most remarkable therein. 
Thirdly, that generally the English got the better in these broils. 
Lastly, that, for the most part, they were victories without tri 
umphs, wherein the conqueror might sigh for his conquest, so 
dear the price thereof. 

PHYSICIANS. 

WILLIAM TURNER was born at Morpeth in this county ;f 
bred in the university of Cambridge, where he became an excel 
lent Latinist, Grecian, orator, and poet. He was very zealous 
in the Protestant religion, writing many books in the defence 
thereof, and much molested for the same by bishop Gardiner 
and others. He was kept long in durance ; and, escaping at 
last by God s providence, fled over beyond sea. At Ferrara in 
Italy he commenced doctor of physic, there gaining his degree 
with general applause. He wrote a great " Herbal," and a book 
of physic for the English gentry, as also several treatises of 
plants, fishes, stones, metals, &c.J He went afterwards into 

* A third part of the county, from which the duke of Northumberland takes his 
title, belongs to him. Alnwick Castle, where he lives, is a vast and magnificent 
edifice ED. 

f Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. viii. num. 95. t Idem. 



PHYSICIANS WRITERS. 549 

Germany, where he lived in great credit and practice ; and, as 
I conjecture, died there in the reign of queen Mary. Reader, 
I conceive him worthy of thy special notice, because he was both 
a confessor and physician ; qualifications which meet not every 
day in the same person. 

THOMAS GIBSON. It is pity to part him from the former, 
because symbolising in many particulars of concernment: 1. 
Both born in this county, and in the same town of Morpeth :* 
2. Flourishing at the self-same time : 3. Physicians by profes 
sion ; and it is said of this Thomas, that he did " segritudinum 
sanationes incredibiles," (incredible cures of diseases :)t 4. 
Writing of the same subject, of the nature of herbs; 5. Pro 
fessed enemies to Popery. 

This Thomas wrote many other books; and one entitled, 
"The Treasons of the Prelates since the Conquest;" which 
work, had it come to the hand of a modern author,^ happily it 
might have much helped him in that subject. He was alive in 
the last of queen Mary ; and Bale sendeth forth a hearty prayer 
for the continuance of his health and happiness. 

WRITERS. 

RALPH FRESBOURNE was born in this county, bred a sol 
dier, scholar, traveller (being a man of great estate), and at last 
turned a friar. He attended Richard earl of Cornwall, and 
king of the Romans, into the Holy-Land. Here he became 
acquainted with the friars living on Mount Carmel, which were 
then much molested with the inroads of Pagans. Our Ralph, 
pitying their condition, and much taken with their sanctity and 
(as some say) miracles, brought them over with him into England, 
and built them a house at Holme, nigh Alnwick, in Northum 
berland, " in loco Carmelo Syriee non dissimili," saith my 
author, || in a place not unlike to Carmel in Syria. Thus pence 
are like shillings; and as Carmel had a hill, with the river 
Kishon running under it, a forest beside it,^[ and the mid 
land-sea some three miles from it ; so this had the river Alne, 
a park adjoining, and the German-sea at the same distance. 

But Northumberland was but a cold Carmel for these friars ;** 
who soon got themselves warmer nests, in Kent, Essex, Lon 
don, and where not ? multiplying more in England than in any 
other country, as Mantuanff observeth, and hath not ill ex 
pressed : 

* Bale, de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. viii. num. 54. f Idem, ibidem. 

J Master William Spring- 

Bale.de Scriptoribus Britannicis, Cent. iv. num. 1. ; and Pits, in anno 1274. 
|| Bale, ut prius. ^ Isaiah xxxvii. 24. 

** The Lord Vessey was so great a benefactor to this convent, that by some he is 
reputed the founder thereof, 
ft Fastorum, lib. viii. 



550 WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 

Cur apud Anglorum populos ita creverit, audi : 
jtnglicus in Syrias veniens cxercitus olim, 
Achonem Tyrii posilam propc litora ponti, 
Quce prius occurrit, subitis oppresserat armis. 

" Hear, why that they so much in England thriv d : 
When th English erst in Palestine arriv d, 
The city Aeon on the shore of Tyre, 
As next at hand, with arms did soon acquire," 

And after some verses interposed : 

Ista duces tanta intuiti miracula, secum 

In patriam duxere viros, quibus arma negabant 

In laribus sedem Jlssyriis : et templa domosque 

Construxere novas. Paucis ita floruit annis 

Relligio, quasi virga solo depactafcraci, 

Et velutipalmes robur translatn recepit. 

" The captains, seeing so great wonders wrought, 
These friars with them into England brought : 
What war denied at home, they here anew 
Churches and houses built. In years but few, 
Increasing twig-like set by happy band, 
Or tree transplanted to a fruitful land." 

This Ralph wrote books of pious Exhortations and Epistles ; 
and, after he had been fourteen years provincial of his own 
order, died and was buried at Holme aforesaid, anno Do 
mini 1274. 

JOHANNES SCOTUS. We have formerly asserted the very 
Society of this Scotus s nativity to belong to England, and have 
answered the objections to the contrary. He was born at Dun- 
ston, a village in the parish of Emildon in this county,* as 
appeareth by a writing in a book of his in Merton College, 
wherein he was bred. He was a Franciscan by order ; and of 
such nimble and solid parts, that he got the title of Doctor 
Subtilis. 

Hitherto all schoolmen were (like the world before the build 
ing of Babel) e( of one language, and of one speech ; "t agreeing 
together in their opinions, which hereafter were divided into 
two regiments, or armies rather, of Thomists and Scotists, under 
their several generals opposing one another. Scotus was a 
great stickler against the Thomists for that " sinful opinion, 
that the Virgin Mary was conceived without sin ; " which if so, 
how came she to rejoice in God her Saviour ?J He read the 
sentences thrice over in his solemn lectures, once at Oxford, 
again at Paris, and last at Cologne, where he died, or was 
killed rather, because, falling into a strong fit of an apoplexy, he 
was interred whilst yet alive, as afterwards did appear. Small 
amends were made for his hasty burial, with a handsome monu 
ment erected over him, at the cost of his order (otherwise, 
whether as Scot, scholar, or Franciscan, he had little wealth of 
his own) in the choir before the High Altar. On his monument 

* Camden s Britannia, in Northumberland. f Genesis xi. l. 

\ Luke i 47. Camden s Britannia, in Northumberland. 



BENEFACTORS. 551 

are inscribed the names of fifteen Franciscans, viz. three popes, 
and two cardinals on the top, and ten doctors (whereof six Eng 
lish) on the sides thereof;* all his contemporaries, as I con 
ceive. He died anno Domini 1308. 

BENEFACTORS TO THE PUBLIC. 

STEPHEN BROWN, grocer, son of John Brown, was born at 
Newcastle upon Tyne in this county, afterwards knighted, and 
made lord mayor of London, 1438 ;t in which year happened a 
great and general famine, caused much by unseasonable wea 
ther, but more by some (huckstering husbandmen) who pro 
perly may be termed knaves in grain, insomuch that wheat was 
sold for three shillings a bushel (intolerable according to the 
standard of those times), and poor people were forced to make 
bread of fern roots. But this Sir Stephen Brown sent certain 
shipsto Dantzic, whose seasonable return with rye suddenly sunk 
grain to reasonable rates, whereby many a languishing life was 
preserved. He is beheld one of the first merchants, who, in 
want of corn, shewed the Londoners the way to the barn-door 
I mean, into Spruseland, prompted by charity (not covetous- 
ness) to this his adventure. It may be said that, since his 
death, he hath often relieved the city on the like occasion, 
because, as SymmachusJ well observeth, " Author est bonorum 
sequentium, qui bonum relinquit exemplum." 

ROBERT WOODLARKE was born, saith my author, at 
Wakerly in this county. True it is, in my late " Church His 
tory," I have challenged him for Northamptonshire ; 1. because 
there is no Wakerly || in Northumberland; 2. because there is a 
Wakerly in Northamptonshire. But, on second thoughts, I 
resign him clear to his county, loath to higgle for a letter or two 
(misprinted perchance) in the name of a town. This Wood- 
larke was the last of the first original fellows, and third provost 
of King s College in Cambridge. He bought three tenements 
in Miln-street, and (by a mortmain procured from king Edward 
the Fourth) erected of them a small college, by the name of 
Saint Katharine s Hall. 

" As is the man, so is his strength." Great matters cannot 
be expected from so private a person, who never attained to 
any prelatical preferment, who was bountiful to his foundation 
to the utmost of his ability. Herein he stands alone, without 
any to accompany him, being the first and last who was master 
of one college, and at the same time founder of another. This 
his Zoar hath since met with many worthy benefactors, who 
have advanced it to be considerable both in buildings and reve- 

* Pits, de illustribus Anglise Scriptoribus, p. 393. 

f Stow s Survey of London, p. 564. J Lib. nouo, Ep. 70. 

John Scot, in his Tables of Cambridge. 

|| Consult Speed s Alphabetical Tables, and Villare Anglicanum. 



552 WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 

nues. The date of his death I cannot with any certainty 
affix. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

MACHELL VIVAN is a Scottish-man by his birth ; but, 
because beneficed in this county so many years, shall (by the 
reader s leave) pass for an Englishman, so far as to be here 
inserted ; the rather, because he will minister to the present 
and future ages just maftter of admiration, as, by the perusing 
of the ensuing letter from my credible friend, well known in 
London (where his surviving father was not long since the 
prime magistrate thereof) will appear : 

" There is an acquaintance of mine, and a friend of yours, who 
certified me of your desire of being satisfied of the truth of that 
relation I made, concerning the old minister in the north. It 
fortuned, in my journey to Scotland, I lay at Alnwick in Nor 
thumberland one Sunday by the way; and understanding from 
the host of the house where I lodged, that this minister lived 
within three miles of that place, I took my horse after dinner, 
and rid thither, to hear him preach, for my own satisfaction. I 
found him in the desk, where he read unto us some part of the 
common prayer, some of holy David s Psalms, and two chapters, 
one out of the Old the other out of the New Testament, without 
the use of spectacles. The Bible, out of which he read the 
chapters, was a very small printed Bible. He went afterwards 
into his pulpit, where he prayed and preached to us about an 
hour and a half. His text was, " Seek you the kingdom of God, 
and all things shall be added unto you." In my poor judgment, 
he made an excellent good sermon, and went cleverly through, 
without the help of any notes. After sermon, I went with him 
to his house, where I proposed these several following questions 
to him. Whether it was true, the book reported of him con 
cerning his hair ? whether or no he had a new set of teeth come ? 
whether or no his eye-sight ever failed him ? and whether in any 
measure he found his strength renewed unto him ? He an 
swered me distinctly to all these ; and told me, he understood 
the news-book reported his hair to become a dark brown again ; 
but that is false : he took his cap off, and shewed me it. It is come 
again like a child s, but rather flaxen than either brown or gray. 
For his teeth, he hath three come within these two years, not 
yet to their perfection ; while he bred them he was very ill. 
Forty years since he could not read the biggest print without 
spectacles, and now (he blesseth God) there is no print so small, 
no written hand so small, but he can read it without them. For 
his strength, he thinks himself as strong now as he hath been 
these twenty years. Not long since he walked to Alnwick to 
dinner and back again, six north-country miles. He is now an 
hundred and ten years of age, and, ever since last May, a hearty 
body, very cheerful, but stoops very much. He had five chil- 



MEMORABLE PERSONS. 553 

dren after he was eighty years of age, four of them lusty lasses 
now living with him, the other died lately ; his wife yet hardly 
fifty years of age. He writes himself Machell Vivan. He is a 
Scottish-man, born near Aberdeen. I forget the town s name 
where he is now pastor ; he hath been there fifty years. 

"Your assured loving friend, THOMAS ATKIN." 

" Windsor, 28 September, 1657." 

A most strange accident ! for waiving the poetical fiction of 
JEson s Re-juvenescency in Medea s bath, it will hardly be paired. 
To begin with Scripture, Caleb (or all-heart] his professing him 
self as able for any action at eighty, as forty years before,* 
speaketh no renovation, but continuation of his strength. And 
whereas David saith, that "his youth was renewed as an Eagle s," t 
he is to be understood in a metaphorical, yea spiritual sense, 
of the vigorousness and sprightliness of grace in his heart, seeing 
otherwise his great debilitation doth appear at seventy years_,J 
scarce a moiety of this man s age. As for the many miracles, 
wrought by our Saviour, though extending to the cleansing of lepers, 
curing diseases, casting out devils, yea reviving the dead, yet 
they never countermanded nature in this kind, by recruiting the 
strength of an aged person. As for human history, I meet not 
with any to mate him in all particulars. The nearest that tread- 
eth on his heels, is the countess of Desmond, married in the 
reign of king Edward the Fourth, and yet alive anno 1589, 
and many years since, when she was well known to Sir Walter 
Raleigh, and to all the nobles and gentlemen in Munster ; but 
chiefly to the earls (for there was a succession of them worn 
out by her vivacity) of Desmond, from whose expectation she 
detained her jointure. The lord Bacon casteth up her age to be 
a hundred and forty at least, adding withal, " Ter per vices 
dentisse," (that she recovered her teeth, after her casting them 
three several times.) 

All I will add is this, had this happened in foreign parts, ad 
dicted to Popery, near the shrine of some Saint, superstition, 
with her sickle, might have reaped a great harvest thereby. 



ANDERSON, a townsman and merchant of Newcastle, 

talking with a friend on Newcastle bridge, and fingering his ring, 
before he was aware let it fall into the river, and was much 
troubled with the loss thereof, until the same was found in a fish 
caught in the river, and restored unto him. The same is re 
ported by Herodotus, in his third book, of Polycrates, a petty 
king, and the minion of fortune, and may be an instance of the 
recurrency of remarkable accidents, according to Solomon s ob 
servation, "There is no new thing under the sun." || 

* Joshua xiv. 11. f Psalm ciii. 5. J 1 Kings i. 1. 

"Vox Piscis," printed anno 1626, p. 13. || Eccles. i. 9. 



554 WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 



NAMES OF THE GENTRY OF THIS COUNTY, 

RETURNED BY THE COMMISSIONERS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF KING HENRY 

THE SIXTH, 1433. 

Thomas bishop of Durham, and Ralph earl of Westmoreland ; 
Thomas Lilborn, and John Carington, (knights for the shire) ; 
Commissioners to take the oaths. 

Rob. Umfravile, mil. Ric. Fetherstanhalgh. 

Rad. Gray, mil. Gilb. Rotherford. 

Rob. Ogle, senior, mil. Will. Muschaunce. 

Rob. Ogle, jun. mil. Gilb. Eryngton. 

Johan. Bertram, mil. Will. Clenell. 

Will. Elmeden, mil. Johan. Heron de Netherton. 

Johan. Midleton^ mil. Tho. Reed de Redesdale. 

Will. Svynbarn, mil. Roger Ushere. 

Johan. Maners, mil. Tho. Midleton. 

Math. Whitfeld, mil. Joh. Ellerington. 

Will. Carnaby. Joh. Park. 

Johan. Fenwyk. Rich. Lilburne. 

Johan. Midelton. Tho. El wick. 

Tho. Ilderton. Joh. Eryngton. 

Rob. Raymes. Nic. Heron de Meldon. 

Tho. Haggerston. Joh. Trewyk. 

Rob. Maners. Joh. Chestre. 

Laur. Acton. Lion. Chestre. 

Tho. Gray de Norton. Joh. Horsley de Horsley. 

Tho. Blekensop. Jaco. Buk de Morpath. 

Row. Thirwall. 

OBSERVATIONS. 

The fable is sufficiently known of the contest betwixt the 
wind and the sun, which first should force the traveller to put off 
his clothes. The wind made him wrap them the closer about him ; 
whilst the heat of the sun soon made him to part with them. 

This is moralized in our English gentry. Such who live 
southward near London (which, for the lustre thereof, I may 
fitly call the sun of our nation), in the warmth of wealth, and 
plenty of pleasures, quickly strip and disrobe themselves of their 
estates and inheritance ; whilst the gentry living in this county, 
in the confines of Scotland, in the wind of w r ar (daily alarmed 
with their blustering enemies), buckle their estates (as their 
armour) the closer unto them ; and since have no less thriftily 
defended their patrimony in peace, than formerly they valiantly 
maintained it in war. 

The commissioners of this county did not over-weary them 
selves in working, when they returned these persons ; presenting 
no under-wood, yea, no standels, but only timber oaks, men of 
great wealth and worship in this shire, as appears by the thin 
ness of their number, but one and twenty. 



WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 



555 



SHERIFFS 
OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 



Anno HENRY II. 

1 Odardus. 

2 Will, de Vesci Milo. 

3 Idem. 
4 

5 Idem. 

6 

7 Will, de Vesci Milo, for 

nine years. 
16 Rog. Statevill, for fifteen 

years. 

31 Rog. de Glanvill, for three 
years. 

RICHARD. I. 

1 Rog. de Glanvill. 

2 Will, de Stutevill, et 
Regin. Basset. 

3 Null. Tit. Com. in hoc 

Rotulo. 
4 
5 

6 Hug. Bardoph. for four 

years. 
10 Idem, et Ob. fil. Will. 

JOH. REG. 

1 Hugo Bardolfe. 

2 Will. Stutevill, et 
Job. Laleman. 

3 Rob. films Rog. et 

Rad. de Furnell, for three 

years. 
6 

7 . 

8 Rob. nlius Rog. et 
Rob. de Kent. 

9 Rob. filius Rog. et 
Ang. de Corvo. 

10 Rob. filius Rog. et 
Tho. Haltem. 

11 Rob. filius Rog. et 
Will, de Blunvill. 



Anno 

12 Idem. 

13 Idem. 
14 

15 Idem. 

16 Almericus Archid. Dun- 

elm, et Phil. Ulecott. 

17 Phil, de Ulecot, et 
Will, de Stratton. 

HENRY III. 

1 Phil, de Ulcot, for four 
years. 

5 Rob. de Wittester alias 

Wirceser. 

6 Idem. 

7 Will. Briewere, jun. et 
Rog. Langford. 

8 Will. Briever, jun. ut Gus 

tos, et Tho. de Tetleburn. 

9 Joh. filius Rob. et 

Will. Coniers, for three 
vears. 

V 

12 Joh. filius Rob. 

13 Bri. fil. Alani, et 

Hug. de Magneby, for three 

years. 
16 Bri. fil. Alani, et 

Joh. de Mersley, for four 
years. 

20 Rich. 

21 Hu. de Bolebet, et 

Alan, de Kirkby, for seven 

years. 
28 Hug. de Bolebet, et 

Rob. de Camho, for three 

years. 

31 Will. Heyrun, for eleven 
years. 

42 Joh. de Plesset. 

43 Idem. 

44 Tho. filius Mich- 

45 Idem. 



556 



WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 



Anno Anno 

46 Adam de Gesenor, et 
Hug. de Hereford, cl icus. 

47 Adam de Cresenor, et 
Joh. Lidegreynes, for five 

years. 

52 Wischardus de Charny. 

53 Idem. 

54 Rich, de Charny, for three 

years. 

EDWARD I. 

1 Rob. de Hampton, for 

three years. 
4 Joh. de Lichegreynes, for 

three years. 

7 Walt, de Cannblion. 

8 Idem. 

9 Tho. de Dyneleston, for 

eight years. 

17 Rich. Knoul, for five years. 
22 Hu. Gobium, for three 

years. 

25 Joh. de Kirkby. 

26 Rob. de Balliclo. 

27 Idem. 

28 Rog. My not. 

29 Idem. 

30 Joh. de Camblion. 

31 Lucas Talboys. 

32 Idem. 

33 Joh. de Creppinge, et 
Joh. de Sheffeld, for three 

years. 

EDWARD II. 

1 Rob, de Fandon. 

2 Guid. Charroum. 

3 Johan. de Cannton. 

4 Idem. 

5 Will, de Felton, et 

Joh. de Cannton, for three 
years. 



EDWARD III. 

1 Joh. de Insula, et 
Joh. de Fenwick. 

2 Joh. de Littlebourne, for 

five years. 

7 

8 Rog. Mauduit. 

9 Hob. Dardins, for three 

years. 
12 Williel. Felton, for six 

years. 
Rob. Bertram, et 

Rob. de Fenwicke. 
Idem, 

Rob. Reyms. 
Idem. 

Johan. Clifford. 
Idem. 

Joh. Coupeland, for three 
years. 



18 

19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 

28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 
35 
36 

37 

38 



Alan, de Strocker. 

Idem. 

Hen. de Strocker. 

Idem. 

Johan. Heronn. 

Rog de Widrington. 

Rich, de Horsele. 

Hen. de Strocher, for five 



years. 

43 Rich, de Horsele, for three 
years. 

46 Rob. Umfravil. 

47 Tho. Surtis. 

48 Johan. Fenwicke. 

49 Barthram. Monboucher. 

50 Tho. de Ilderton. 

51 Rob. Umfravil. 



EDWARD III. 



25. JOHN COUPELAND. This was he, who five years ago 
(viz. in the 20th of this king s reign) took David Bruce king of 
Scotland prisoner, in the battle at Nevil s- cross. Buchanan, an 



SHERIFFS. 

author not always to be credited in the concernments of his 
own nation (seldom allowing victory to the English valour, but 
either to their treachery or unequal numbers ), reporteth, how 
Coupeland, having disarmed his royal prisoner, "duos*pugno 
dentes excussit," which I will not English, as confident never 
done by Englishman, our Chronicles taking no notice of such a 
cruelty ; but that he treated him with strictness beseeming a 
prisoner, and respect becoming a prince, until he had surren 
dered him to king Edward, who rewarded him with knighthood ; 
and lest his honour, without means to support it, should seem 
burdensome to him and contemptible to others, he gave him 
five hundred pounds per annum, to be paid four hundred out 
of the customs of London, the other out of those of Berwick, 
until such time as lands of the same value were settled on him 
and his heirs for ever. 

SHERIFFS OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 

RICH. II. 

Anno Name and Arms. Place. 

1 Bert. Monboucher. 

2 Tho. Surties. 

3 Bert. Monboucher. 

4 Idem. 

5 Adam de Atholl. 

G. on a chevron O. three etoiles S. 

6 Rob. de Clifford. 

Cheeky O. and Az. a fess G. 

7 Johan. Heronn. 

8 Hen. de Percy, 1 

co. Northumb. J 

O. a lion rampant Az. 

9 Idem . . . . . . ut prim. 

10 Idem ut prius. 

11 Idem ut prius. 

12 Rad. de Eure. 

Quarterly, O. and G. on a bend S. three escalops Arg. 

13 Idem ut prius. 

14 Joh. de Filton, mil. 

15 Hen. de Percy, com. \ ^ uf . ^ 

Northumberland 5 * 

16 Idem ut prius. 

17 
18 
19 

20 Hen. de Percy . . . ut prius. 

21 Idem . . . . . - ut prius. 

" Rerum Scoticarum, lib. ix. fol. 89, p. 2. 



558 WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 

Anno Name. Place. 

22 Job. de Fenwick. . . Fenwick. 

Per pale G. and Arg. six martlets counterchanged. 

HEN. IV. 

1 Hen. de Percy, fil. I uf -^ 

com. Northumberland J 

2 Ger. Heron, mil. et 
Rob. Umfravill. 

Arg. a fess betwixt six cinquefoils G. 

3 Job. Milford, mil. 

4 Job. Clavering, mil. 

Quarterly O. and G. a bend S. 
5 

6 Rob. Umfravill, mil. . ut prius. 

7 Rob. Lisle, mil. 

O. a fess betwixt two chevrons S. 

8 Rob. Herbotell. 

9 Tho. Grey. 

G. a lion ramp, within a border engrailed Arg. 

10 Rob. Tempest. 

Arg. a bend betwixt six martlets S. 

11 Job. Widrington. 

Quarterly, Arg. and G. a bend S. 

12 Job. Bertram. 

O. an orle Az. 

HENR. V. 

1 Job. Maveres. 

O. two bars Az. a chief G. 

2 Edw. Hastings, mil. 

Arg. a maunch S. 

3 Rob. Lisle .... ut prius. 

4 Job. Bertram .... ut prius. 

5 Rob. Ogle. 

Arg. a fess betwixt three crescents G. 

6 Edw. Hastings . . . ut prius. 

7 Will. Elmeden. 

8 Tho. Surtis. 

9 Idem. 

HENR. VI. 

1 Job. Bertram, mil. . . ut prius. , 

2 Job. Midleton. 

3 Job. Bertram, mil. . . ut prius. 

4 Job. Widerington . . ut prius. 

5 Will. Lambton. 

6 Hen. Fenwick, arm. . ut prius. 

7 Will. Carnaby, arm. 



SHERIFFS. 559 

Anno Name. Place. 

8 Job. Woderington . . ut prius. 

9 Job. Bertram . . . ut prius. 

10 Rog. Woderington . . ut prius. 

11 Joh. Midleton. 

12 Math. Whitfeld. 

Arg. a bend betwixt two cotizes engrailed S. 

13 Joh. Bertram, mil. . . ut prius. 

14 Rog. Woderington . . ut prius. 

15 Will. Eure, mil. . . . ut prius. 

16 Rob. Ogle, mil. . . . ut prius. 

17 Joh. Bertram .... ut prius. 

18 Rob. Herbotell, mil. 

19 Joh. Heron .... Gawby. 

20 Idem. 

21 Rog. Woderington. . . ut prius. 

22 Joh. Heron. 

23 Rob. Claxston. 

24 Will. Haringe. 

25 Tho. Wellden. 

26 Bertr. Herbotell. 

27 Tho. Nevill, mil. 

G. a saltire Arg. 

28 Ro. de Woderington . ut prius. 

29 Rog. Thornton. 

30 Joh. Heronford. 

31 Rob. Mitford. 

32 Joh. Burcester. 

33 Rob. Mavers, arm. . . ut prius. 

34 Rad. Grey, mil. . . . Chillingham. 

G. a lion rampant within a border engrailed Are- 

35 Joh. Heron, mil. 

36 Rog. Thornton. 

37 Will. Bertram . . . ut prius. 

38 Rad. Grey, mil. . . . ut prius. 

EDW. IV. 

1 Joh. Midleton, mil. 

2 George Lumley, mil. 

3 Idem. 

4 Rob. Maures, mil. . . ut prius. 

5 Ger. Woderington . . ut prius. 

6 Will. Bowes, mil. 

Erm. three bows bent G. 

7 Joh. Nevill, mil. . . ut prius. 

8 Geor. Lumley, mil. 

9 Idem, 

10 Idem. 

11 Idem. 



560 WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 

Anno Name and Arras. Place. 

12 Joh. Woderington . . ut prius. 

13 Idem ut prius. 

14 Idem ut prius. 

15 Hen. com. North. . . ut prius. 

16 Idem tit prius. 

17 Idem ...... ut prius. 

18 Idem . ... . . . ut prius. 

19 Idem ut prius. 

20 Idem ut prius. 

21 Idem ut prius. 

22 

RICHARD III. 

1 Hen. com. North. . . ut prius. 

2 Rad. Herbotle, mil. 

subvic. 

3 Hen. com. North. . . ut prius. 

4 Rob. Maneret, mil. 

HENR. VII. 

1 Hen. com. North. . . ut prixs. 

2 Idem ut prius. 

3 Idem ut prius. 

4 Xullus Tit. Com. in hoc 

5 Rotulo. 
6 

7 

8 

9 Rog. Fen wick, arm, . . ut prius. 
10 
11 

12 Rob. Grey ..... Horton. 

Arms, ut prius. 

13 Geor. Taylboys, mil. 

Arg. a cross S. and chief G. on the last, three escalops of 

the first. 
14 
15 
16 
17 Edw. Radcliff, mil. 

Arg. a bend engrailed S. 
18 

19 Rad. Eure, mil. . . . ut prius. 
20 

21 Tho. Ilderton, mil. 
22 

23 Nich. Ridley, arm. 
24 



SHERIFFS. 



561 



Anno 

1 
2 
3 
4 
5 
6 

7 

8 

9 

10 
11 
12 



HENRY VIII. 

Name. Place. 

Nich. Ridley, arm. 

Idem, 

Idem. 



Rad. Fenwick, arm. . . ut prius. 



13 

14 
15 
16 

17 

18 
19 
20 
21 
22 
23 
24 
25 
26 

27 
28 
29 
30 
31 
32 
33 
34 

v 

35 

36 

37 

38 



Chri. Thirkill, arm. 
Geor. Skelton, arm. 
Chri. Dacre, mil. 

G. three escalops Arg. 
Will. Elleker, arm. 

Arg, a fess betwixt three water-bougets G. 



Will. Elleker, mil. 
Will. Heron, mil. 
Will. Eure, mil. . 
Cut. Ratcliffe, arm. 



(Recorda manca.j 



ut prius. 

ut prius. 
ut prius. 



Joh. Woderington . . ut prius \ 
Leon. Cornaby, mil. 
Joh. de Lavale, mil. 

Erm. two bars Vert. 
Tho. Hilton, mil. 

Arg. two bars Az. over all a flower-de-luce O. 
Joh. Collingwood. 
Tho. Hilton, mil. . . ut prius. 
Joh. Horsley, arm. 



EDWARD VI. 

1 Joh. de Lavele, mil. . ut prius. 

2 Tho. Hilton, mil. . . ut prius. 

VOL. II. 2 O 



562 WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 

Anno Name. Place. 

3 Job. Foster, mil. 

Arg. a chevron Vert betwixt three hunters horns S. 

4 Joh. Gray, mil. . ut prius. 

5 Rob. Collingwood. 

6 Joh. Witherington . . ut prius. 



PHIL. Ct MAR. 

1 Joh. de Lavele, mil. . ut prius. 
1,2 
2,3 
3,4 
4,5 
5, 6 Geo. Ratcliffe, mil. . ut prius. 

ELIZ. REG. 

1 Joh. Witherington . . ut prius. 

2 Alb. Fetherston. . . Fetherstonhaugh. 

G. a chevron betwixt three feathers Arg. 

3 Rob. Lawson, arm. 

4 Hen. Percy, mil. . . ut prius. 

5 Rad. Grey, mil. . . . ut prius. 

6 Tho. Foster, arm. . . ut prius. 

7 Joh. de Lavele, arm. . ut prius. 

8 Georg, Heron, arm. 

9 Cut. Carnaby, arm. 

10 Cut. Collingwood. 

11 Rob. Raydes, arm. 

12 Nich. Ridley, arm. 

13 Joh. de Lavele, mil. . ut prius. 
Geor. Heron, mil. 

14 Tho. Foster, arm. . . ut prius. 

15 Cut. Caneyby, arm. 

16 Tho. Grey, mil. . . . ut prius. 

17 Rob. de Lavele, mil. . ut prius. 

18 Rob. Midleton, arm. 

19 Fran. Russel, mil. 

Arg. a lion rampant G. ; on a chief S. three escalops of 
the first. 

20 Will, Fenwicke, arm. . ut prius. 

21 Hen. Witherington . . ut prius. 

22 Cut. Colingwood. 

23 Joh. Heron, arm. 

24 Rad. Grey, arm. . . . ut prius. 

25 Rob. de Lavele, arm. . ut prius. 

26 Jam. Ogle, arm. . . . ut prius. 

27 Rich. Radley, arm. 

28 Rob. Clauding, arm. 



SHERIFFS. 
Anno Name. Place. 

29 Hen. Anderson, arm. 

30 Idem. 

31 Will. Fenwick, arm. . ut priu*. 

32 Ale. Fetherston, arm. . ut prins. 

33 Rad. Grey, arm. . . . ut prius. 

34 Rob. de Lavele, arm. . ut prins. 

35 Rad. Grey, arm. . . . ut prim. 

36 Tho. .Bradford, arm. 

37 Idem. 

38 Geor. Muschampe. 

O. three bars G. 

39 Edw. Grey, arm. . . ut prins. 

40 Idem ut prim. 

41 Tho. Midleton, arm. 

42 Geo. Muschamp, arm. . ut prius. 

43 Edw. Talbot, arm. 

Arg. three lions rampant Purpure. 

44 Nich. Foster, arm. 

Arg. a chevron Vert betwixt three hunters horns b. 

45 Will. Selby, jun. arm. 

et 1 Jacob. 

JACO. REX. 

1 Will. Selby, jun. arm. 

2 Rad. de Lavale, arm. . ut prius. 

3 Hen. Witherington . . ut prius. 

4 Will. Selby, mil. 

5 Geor. Selby, mil. 

6 Rad de Lavale, mil. . ut prius. 

7 Edw. Talbot, arm. . . ut prius. 

8 Joh. de Lavale, arm. . ut prius. 

9 Rad. Grey, mil. . . . ut prius. 

10 Claud. Foster, arm. . . ut prius. 

11 Rad. Seldy, mil. 

12 Joh. Clavering, mil. 

Quarterly, O. and G. a bend S. 

13 Hen. Anderson, mil. 

14 Will. Selby, mil. 

15 Rob. Brandlinge. 

16 Tho. Midleton, arm. 

1 7 Joh. Fenwicke, mil. . . ut prius. 

18 Mat. Foster, arm. . . ut prius. 

19 Rad. de Lavale, mil. . ut prius. 

20 Will. Muschampe . . ut prius. 

21 Joh. Clavering, mil. . . ut prius. 

22 Joh. de Lavale, mil. 

Erm. two bars Vert. 

2 o 2 



564 WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 

CAR REG. 

Anno Name. Place. 

1 Cutb. Heron, arm. 

2 Fran. Bradling, arm. 
3 

4 Tho. Swinborn, mil. et 

duobus Tumid. 
5 

6 Rob. Bradling, arm. 

7 Nic. Towneley, arm. 

8 Nich. Tempest, mil. . ut prim. 

9 Tho. Midleton, arm. 
10 

11 Will. Carniby, mil. 

12 Will. Witherington. 

Quarterly, Arg. and G. a bend S. 

13 Rob. Bewick, arm. 
14 

15 
16] 

17 

18 
19 
20 
21 

22J 



Ingratum bello debemus inane. 



The reader is sensible of more blanks and interruptions in 
these sheriffs, than in any other catalogue ; whereof this rea 
son may be assigned ; because the sheriffs of Northumberland 
never accounted to the king s majesty in his Exchequer (from 
which accounts the most perfect list is made) until the third 
year of king Edward the Sixth. Yea, they assumed such 
liberty to themselves, as to seize the issues and profits of their 
Bailiwick, and convert them to their own use, with all other 
debts, fines, and amercements, within the said county, and all 
emoluments accruing from alienations, intrusions, wards, mar 
riages, reliefs, and the like. 

This, though it tended much unto the detriment and loss of 
the crown, was for many years connived at, chiefly to encourage 
the sheriffs in their dangerous office, who, in effect, lay constant 
perdms against the neighbouring Scots. But after that their 
care was much lessened, by settling the lord-wardens of the 
Marches, it was enacted, in the third of king Edward the Sixth, 
that the sheriffs of Northumberland should be accountable for 
their office, as others, in the Exchequer.* 

* Anno 2 and 3 Edward VI. cap. 34. 



WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 565 



QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

19. FRANCIS RUSSELL, Mil. He was son to Francis, and 
father to Edward earl of Bedford. He married Julian, daughter 
(whom Mills* calls Elionar, and makes her co-heir) to Sir John 
Foster aforesaid, which occasioned his residence in these parts. 
It happened on a truce day, June 27, 1585, that the English 
meant to treat, whilst the Scots meant to fight, being three 
thousand to three hundred. Now, though it was agreed betwixt 
them (to use the words of the limitary-laws) that they should 
not hurt each other with word, deed, or look, they fell on the 
English ; in which tumult this worthy knight lost his life. 
And, because seldom single funerals happen in great families, 
his father died the same week in the south of England. 



THE FAREWELL. 

Being now to take our leave of Northumberland, I remember 
what I have read of Sir Robert Umfrevile, a native of this county 
how he was commonly called Robin Mend market, so much 
he improved trading hereabouts, in the reign of king Henry the 
Fourth.f It will not be amiss to wish this county more Mend- 
markets, that the general complaint of the decay of traffic may 
be removed. I confess, the knight bettered the markets, by 
selling therein the plentiful plunder which he had taken from 
the Scots ; but I desire it done by some ingenious and not 
injurious design^ that none may have just cause to complain. 



WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND WHO HAVE FLOURISHED 
SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 

Mark AKENSIDE, physician, author of " The Pleasures of 
Imagination/ and o ther poems; born at Newcastle 1721; 

died 1J70. 
Anthony ASKEW, Greek scholar, collector, Newcastle ; born 

1722 ; died 1774. 

John BEWICK, engraver on wood; born at Ovingham 1760; 
died 1795. 

John BRAND, divine, antiquary, historian of his native town; 
born at Newcastle 1 743 ; died 1 806. 

Dr. John BROWN, divine, poet, and painter; born at Roth- 
bury 1715; died 1766. 

William BULMER, correct and beautiful typographer; born at 
Newcastle 1757; died 1830. 

* In Catalogue of Honour, p. 440. f Stow s Chronicle, p. 338. 



566 WORTHIES OF NORTHUMBERLAND. 

William BURDON, political and miscellaneous writer ; born at 

Newcastle 1764 ; died 1818. 
Sir Robert CHAMBERS, chief justice in the East Indies ; born 

at Newcastle 1737; died 1803. 
Lionel CHARLTON, mathematician, author of the History of 

Whitby; born at Upper Stobbilee in Bellingham 1720; 

died 1785. 
Cuthbert COLLINGWOOD, admiral lord, victor at Trafalgar; 

born at Newcastle 1749; died 1810. 

Thomas COLLINGWOOD, physician, medical author, and drama 
tist; born at Bates Cross, near Berwick, 1751 ; died 1822. 
Authony COOK, mathematician; born at Woolley; died there 

1824. 
George COUGHRAN, mathematician, compiler of the Ladies 

Diary, " a prodigy of genius;" born at Wreighill 1752; 

died 1774. 
Sir Ralph DELAVAL, admiral at the battle of La Hogue ; born 

at North Dissington ; died 1707- 
Elizabeth ELSTOB, Saxonist; born at Newcastle 1683; died 

1756. 
William ELSTOB, brother of Elizabeth, divine, Saxonist; born 

at Newcastle 1673 ; died 1714. 
Sir Charles GREY, first earl Grey, warrior, father of the present 

earl, Howick; born 1729; died 1807. 
Richard GREY, D.D. divine, learned and ingenious author; 

born at Newcastle 1694; died 1771- 
William HEWSON, anatomist and author; born at Hexham 

1739; died 1774. 
Dr. Charles HUTTON, self-taught mathematician, voluminous 

author; born at Newcastle 1737; died 1823. 
John MITFORD, author and song-writer; born at Mitford 

Castle; died 1831. 

Sir Chaloner OGLE, admiral; born atKirkley 1680 ; died 1750. 
George PICKERING, poet; born at Simonburn 1758. 
James PRIXGLE, mathematician and linguist ; born at North 

Shields; died 1824, aged 71. 
Joseph RICHARDSON, lawyer and poet ; born at Hexham 1774 j 

died 1803. 
William RICHARDSON, antiquary, benefactor, and poet; born 

at Little Harle 1759; died 1824. 
John ROTHERAM, pious divine and author; born at Haydon 

Bridge 1725 ; died 1789. 

John RUSHWORTH, lawyer, republican M.P., editor of " His 
torical Collections," &c. ; born in 1607; died 1690. 
Right Hon. John SCOTT, earl of Eldon, and lord chancellor of 

England; born at Newcastle 1751; died 1838. 
Thomas SPENCE, politician, author of a plan to remove pau 
perism ; born at Newcastle; died 1814. 



WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 567 

William STEVENSON, author on commerce arid agriculture; 

born at Berwick 1772; died 1829. 
Percival STOCKDALE, soldier, poet, and divine; born at 

Branxton 1/36; died 1811. 
John TWEDDELL, traveller, scholar, and poet ; born at Threep- 

wood 1769; died 1799. 
George WALKER, author of " Doctrine of the Sphere;" born 

at Newcastle; died 1734. 
John WALLIS, historian of the County ; born at Whitley in 

Kirkhaugh 1714; died 1793. 



** The principal historian of this important and interesting county is the Rev. 
J. Hodgson, the leading Editor of the twelfth volume of the Beauties of England 
and Wales. He published the History of Northumberland in a succession of Parts 
between the years 1827 and 1832 ; and has certainly executed his laborious task 
with considerable ability. Independently of his own researches, his materials have 
been chiefly drawn from Wallis s Natural History and Antiquities of Northumber 
land (1769), and Hutchinson s and Mackenzie s Historical Views of the County, 
the former published in 1778, and the latter in 1825. Since the appearance of 
Mr. Hodgson s Work, Sykes s Local Records, or Historical Register of remaikable 
Events,, have been published, in 2 vols. 8vo. 1833. Of local histories, the prin 
cipal are the Chorographia, or a Survey of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (brought out so 
early as 1649, by Wm. Grey), and the History and Antiquities of Newcastle, by 
J. Brand, in 2 vols 4to. 1789. Eix 



NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 



NOTTINGHAMSHIRE hath Yorkshire on the north, Licolnshire 
on the east, Leicestershire on the south, and Derbyshire on the 
west. Nor can I call to mind any county besides this, bounded 
with four, and but four Shires, (and those towards the four car 
dinal points) without any parcels of other shires interposed. The 
pleasantness thereof may be collected from the plenty of noble 
men, many having their baronies, and more their residence, 
therein. It is divided into two parts, the Sand and the Clay, 
which so supply the defects one of another, that what either 
half doth afford, the whole county doth enjoy. 

NATURAL COMMODITIES. 
GLYCYRIZE, OR LIQUORICE. 

England affordeth hereof the best in the world for some uses ; 
this county the first and best in England. Great the use thereof 
in physic, it being found very pectoral and sovereign for several 
diseases. A stick hereof is commonly the spoon prescribed to 
patients, to use in any lingences or loaches. If (as ^Eneas s 
men were forced to eat their own trenchers) these chance to eat 
their spoons, their danger is none at all. But liquorice, formerly 
dear and scarce, is now cheap and common, because growing 
in all counties. Thus plenty will make the most precious thing 
a drug ; as silver was nothing respected in Jerusalem in the 
days of Solomon. 

WONDERS. 

We must not forget how two ayres of lannards were lately 
found in Sherwood forest. These hawks are the natives of 
Saxony ; and, it seems, being old and past flying at the game, 
were let or did set themselves loose ; where meeting with 
lanerets, enlarged on the same terms, they did breed together, 
and proved as excellent in their kind, when managed, as any 
which were brought out of Germany. 

PROVERBS. 

" Many talk of Robin Hood, who never shot in his bow."] 

That is, many discourse (or prate rather) of matters wherein 
they have no skill or experience. This proverb is now 



PROVERBS. 569 

extended all over England, though originally of Nottinghamshire 
extraction, where Robin Hood did principally reside, in Sher 
wood forest. He was an arcA-robber, and withal an 
excellent archer ; though surely the poet gives a twang to the 
loose of his arrow, making him shoot one a cloth yard long, at 
full forty score mark, for compass never higher than the breast, 
and within less than a foot of the mark.* But herein our au 
thor hath verified one proverb, talking at large of Robin Hood, 
in whose bow he never shot. 

One may justly wonder that this archer did not at last hit the 
mark ; I mean, come to the gallows for his many robberies. 
But see more hereof in the memorable persons of this county. 

" To sell Robin Hood s penny-worths."] 

It is spoken of things sold under half their value ; or, if you 
will, half sold, half given. Robin Hood came lightly by his 
ware, and lightly parted therewith ; so that he could afford the 
length of his bow for a yard of velvet. Whithersoever he came 
he carried a fair along with him, chapmen crowding to buy his 
stolen commodities. But, seeing the receiver is as bad as the 
thief, and such buyers are as bad as receivers, the cheap penny 
worths of plundered goods may in fine prove dear enough to 
their consciences. 

" As wise as a man of Gotham."] 

It passeth publicly for the periphrasis of a fool ; and a hundred 
fopperies are feigned and fathered on the town-folk of Gotham, 
a village in this county. Here two things may be observed : 

1. Men in all ages have made themselves merry without 
singling out some place, and"* fixing the staple of stupidity and 
stolidity therein. Thus the Phrygians were accounted the fools 
of all Asia, and the anvils of other men s wits to work upon : 
"Sero sapiunt Phryges, Phryx nisi ictus non sapit." In Grecia 
take a single city, and then Abdera in Thracia carried it away 
for dull-heads, 

. " Abderitanse pectora plebis habes."f 

But, for a whole country, commend us to the Bceotians for 
block-heads ; and Bceoticum ingenium is notoriously known. In 
Germany auris Batava is taken by the poet J for a dull ear, 
which hath no skill in witty conceits. 

2. These places, thus generally slighted and scoffed at, af 
forded some as witty and wise persons as the world produced. 
Thus Plutarch himself (saith Erasmus ) was a Boeotian, and 
Erasmus a Batavian or Hollander ; and therefore (his own copy 
hold being touched in the proverb) he expoundeth auris Batava 
" a grave and severe ear." 

But to return to Gotham ; it doth breed as wise people as 
any which causelessly laugh at their simplicity. Sure I am, Mr. 

\ 

* Drayton s Polyolbion, Song xxvi.. p. 122. | Martial, I. 10. 

J Martial, 1. 6. Adag. Bceoticum ingenium. 



570 WORTHIES OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 

William de Gotham, fifth master of Michael House in Cam- 
ridge, anno 1336, and twice chancellor of the university, was 
as grave a governor as that age did afford. And Gotham is a 
goodly large lordship, where the ancient and right well respected 
family of St. Andrew have flourished some hundreds of years, till 
of late the name is extinct in, and lands divided betwixt female 
co-heirs, matched unto very worshipful persons. 

" The little smith of Nottingham, 

Who doth the work-that no man can."*] 

England hath afforded many rare workmen in this kind ; 
whereof he may seem an apprentice to Vulcan, and inferior 
only to his master (in making the invisible net) who made a lock 
and key, with a chain of ten links, which a flea could draw. But 
\vhat this little smith and great workman was, and when he 
he lived, I know not ; and have cause to suspect that this of 
Nottingham is a periphrasis of Nemo, Ovng, or a person who 
never was. And the proverb, by way of sarcasm, is applied to 
such who, being conceited of their own skill, pretend to the 
achieving of impossibilities. 

MARTYRS. 

I meet with none within this county, either before or in the 
Marian days ; imputing the latter to the mild temper of Nicho 
las Heath, archbishop of York, and diocesan thereof. Yet find 
we a martyr, though not in this yet of this county, as a native 
thereof, here following : 

THOMAS CRANMER was born at Arse-lackton f (Speed calls 
it Aslacktoii) in this county ; and, being bred in Jesus College 
in Cambridge, became archbishop of Canterbury; and at last 
(after some intermediate failings) valiantly suffered for the truth 
at Oxford, anno Domini 1556, March 22. 

" Two hungry meals," saith our English proverb, " make the 
third a glutton." This may also be inverted, " Two glutton 
meals require the third an hungry one;" fasting being then 
necessary, lest Nature be surcharged. If the reader hath for 
merly perused Mr. Fox s " Acts and Monuments/ and my 
" Ecclesiastical History," Cranmer s story is so largely related 
in those two books, there is danger of his surfeit if I should not 
now be short and sparing therein : only one memorable passage 
omitted by Mr. Fox (and that is a wonder) I must here insert 
out of an excellent author : | 

" After his whole body was reduced into ashes, his heart was 
found entire and untouched." Which is justly alledged as an 
argument of his cordial integrity to the truth, though fear too 
much and too often prevailed on his outward actions : so that 
what the Holy Spirit recordeth of king Asa was true of him, 

* Butters of Bees, p. 17. f Fox, Acts and Monuments, p. 1859. 

J Bishop Godwin, in his Catalogue of the Archbishops of Canterbury, p, 206. 



PRELATES JUDGES. 

" Nevertheless the heart of Asa was perfect all his days ;"* 
though, good man, he was guilty of many and great imper 
fections. 

The like to this of Cranmer is reported of Zuinglius, " Quod, 
cadavere flammis ab hostibus tradito, cor exuri non potuerit ;" 
his foes making this a sign of the obduration and hardness of 
his heart, his friends of the sincerity thereof. And thus saith 
my moderate and learned author,t " Adeo turbatis odio aut 
amore animis, ut fit in religionis dissensionibus, pro se quisque 
omnia superstitiose interpretatur ;" (their minds being so dis 
turbed with hatred or love, as it comes to pass in dissensions 
of religion, every one interprets all things superstitiously for 
his own advantage.) The best is, our religion, wherein it differs 
from Romish errors, hath better demonstration for the truth 
thereof, than those topical and osier accidents, liable to be bent 
on either side, according to men s fancies and affections. 

PRELATES SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

WILLIAM CHAPPELL was born at Lexington in this county, 
and bred a fellow in Christ s College in Cambridge, where he 
was remarkable for the strictness of his conversation. No one 
tutor in our memory bred more and better pupils, so exact his 
care in their education. He was a most subtle disputant, 
equally excellent with the sword and the shield, to reply or 
answer. He was chosen provost of Trinity College in Dublin, 
and afterwards bishop of Cork and Ross. Frighted with the 
rebellion in Ireland, he came over into England, where he 
rather exchanged than eased his condition, such the wofulness 
of our civil wars. He died anno 1649, and parted his estate 
almost equally betwixt his own kindred and distressed ministers ; 
his charity not impairing his duty, and his duty not prejudicing 
his charity. 

CAPITAL JUDGES. 

Sir JOHN MARKHAM, descended of an ancient family, was 
born at Markham in this county, and brought up in the muni 
cipal law, till, being knighted by Edward the Fourth, he was 
made lord chief justice of the King s Bench, in the place of Sir 
John Fortescue. These I may call the two chief justices of the 
chief justices, for their signal integrity : for, though the one of 
them favoured the house of Lancaster, the other of York, in 
the titles to the crown, both of them favoured the house of 
Justice in matters betwixt party and party. 

It happened that Sir Thomas Cooke,J late lord mayor of 
London, one of vast wealth, was cast before-hand at the court 
(where the lord Rivers and the rest of the queen s kindred had 

* 2 Chronicles xv. 17. f Thuanus, Obit. Doctorum Virorum, anno 1531. 

J Fabian, p. 497, and Holinsbed, p. 670, and Stow in the 12th of Edward the 
Fourth. 



572 WORTHIES OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 

pre-clevoured his estate), aud was only, for formality s sake, to 
be condemned in Guildhall., by extraordinary commissioners in 
Oyer and Terminer, whereof Sir John Markham was not the 
meanest. The fact for which he was arraigned, was for lendin- 

O s Q 

money to Margaret the wife of king Henry the Sixth. This he 
denied; and the single testimony of one Haukins, tortured on 
the rack, was produced against him. 

Judge Markham directed the jury (as it was his place, and no 
partiality in point of law to do) to find it only misprision of 
treason ; whereby Sir Thomas saved his lands, though heavily 
fined, arid life, though long imprisoned. The king was highly 
displeased at him, and vowed he should never sit on the bench 
any more. And here I hope it will not trespass on the grave 
character of this judge, to insert a modern and pleasant passage, 
being privy myself to the truth thereof. 

A lady would traverse a suit of law, against the will of her 
husband ; who was contented to buy his quiet by giving her her 
will therein, though otherwise persuaded in his judgment the 
cause would go against her. 

This lady, dwelling in the shire-town, invited the judge to 
dinner, and (though thrifty enough of herself) treated him with 
sumptuous entertainment. Dinner being done, and the cause 
being called, the judge clearly gave it against her. And when 
in passion she vowed never to invite any judge again, " Nay, 
wife," said he, " vow never to invite a just judge any more." 

Well, king Edward was so vexed, that Sir John Markham 
was ousted of his chief-justiceship, and lived privately, but 
plentifully, the remainder of his life, having fair lands by Mar 
garet his wife (daughter and co-heir of Sir Simon Leke, of 
Gotham in this county), besides the estate acquired by his prac 
tice and paternal inheritance. 

SEAMEN. 

EDWARD FENTON (brother to Sir Jeffrey Fenton, of whom 
hereafter*) was born in this county; whose nature inclined him 
wholly to sea-service ; and, disdaining to go in a trodden path, 
he was ambitious to discover unknown passages. His achieve 
ments in this nature are related at large in Mr. Hackluit, and 
excellently contracted in an epitaph on his monument in Dept- 
ford church in Kent, erected by the right honourable Roger 
earl of Cork, who married his brother s daughter: 

"Memori;e perenni Edwardi Fenton, Reginse Elizabethae olim pro corpore Armi- 
geri, Jano O-Neal, ac post eum Comite Desmonise, in Hibernia turbantibus, 
fortissimi Taxiarohi, qui, post lustratum, improbo ausu, Septentrionalis Plagas 
Apochryphum mare, et excussas variis peregrinationibus inertis Naturae latebras, 
anno 1588, in celebri contra Hispanos Naumachia, meruit Navis Pretoria Navar- 
chus. Obiit anno Domini 1603;" 

being some days after the death of queen Elizabeth. Observe, by 

* Title of WRITERS. 



WRITERS. 573 

the way, how God set up a generation of military men, both by 
sea and land, which began and expired with the reign of queen 
Elizabeth, like a suit of clothes made for her, and worn out 
with her ; for Providence, designing a peaceable prince to suc 
ceed her (in whose time martial men would be rendered useless) 
so ordered the matter, that they all almost attended their mis 
tress, before or after, within some short distance, unto her grave. 

WRITERS. 

WILLIAM MANSFIELD (named no doubt from and born at 
that noted market-town in this county) was bred a Dominican ; 
and, for his skill in Logics, Ethics, Physics, and Metaphysics, 
in his age highly applauded. And because some prize a dram 
of foreign before a dram of home-bred praise, know that Lean- 
der Bononiensis* (though mistaking his name Massettus) giving 
him the appellation of inclytus Theologies Professor. He de 
fended Thomas Aquinas against Henrietta Gandavensis (though 
both of them were dead long before), and got great credit 
thereby. Bale (who is not usually so civil in his expressions) 
saith that lie did strew branches of palms before Christ s ass,t 
which, if so, was (I assure you) no bad employment. He 
flourished anno Domini 1320. 

WILLIAM NOTTINGHAM was first prebendary, then chapter, 
of York ; bred an Augustinian, and fourteen years the Pro 
vincial of his order : resigning which place, he went on some great 
employment to Rome ; and, returning thence by Genoa, fell 
sick and recovered of the plague, being therein a monument of 
divine mercy, to prove that disease, though in itself mortal not 
always mortiferum. 

Amongst the many books he wrote, his " Concordance on the 
Evangelists" was most remarkable, which I behold as a leading 
piece in that kind, though since it hath met with many to fol 
low it ; a worthy work, to shew the harmony betwixt those four 
writers, though it hath met with many to decry the design, 
being accounted by 

Some impossible. As if there were contradictions herein past 
reconciling: whose opinion cannot be reconciled with piety; 
seeing the Four Gospels are indited by one and the same spirit 
of unity and verity, of truth and concord ; whilst, in two sentences 
really contrary, one must be false of necessity. 

Others unnecessary. As if it were nothing but the reconciling 
of those who never fell out ; whereas, indeed, there are many 
seeming oppositions therein, to raise the reputation thereof. 
" Intellecta ab omnibus sunt, neglecta a plurimis " and some 
necessary difficulty becomes Scripture, to quicken our prayers, 
pains, and patience to understand it. 

* In quarto libro suorum Praedicatorum. 

f Bale de Scriptoribus Britannicis, cent, v, num. 2. 



574 WORTHIES OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 

Bale giveth him this lukewarm (call it hot, because coming 
from his mouth) commendation, " Non omnino impius in volu- 
minibus quse composuit."* He died, and was buried in Lei 
cester, anno Domini 1336. 

ROBERT WORSOP was born (saith Balef) in the county, mis 
taken for the diocese of York, seeing Worsop is notoriously 
known to be in Nottinghamshire. He was bred an Augustinian 
in the convent of Tick-hill, not far from Doncaster, where he 
wrote many books, the one called " The Entrance of Sentences." 
Bale saith, that at last he was made a bishop, not naming his 
diocese ; and no such prelate appearing in our English cata- 
loo-ue, it rendereth it suspicious, that either he was some Suf- 
frao-an, or some titulary bishop of Greece. He died, and was 
buried at Tick-hill, about the year 1360. 

SINCE THE REFORMATION. 

Sir JEFFREY FENTON, Knight, bom in this county, was for 
twenty-seven years privy councillor in Ireland to queen Eliza 
beth and king James.J He translated the history of Francis 
Guicciardini out of Italian into English, and dedicated it to 
queen Elizabeth. He deceased at Dublin, October 19, 1608 ; 
and lieth buried in St Patrick s Church, under the same tomb 
with his father-in-law Dr. Robert Weston, sometime chancellor 
of Ireland. 

JOHN PLOUGH was born in this county, a pious and learned 
minister of the word ; who, for his conscience, fled over into 
Basle in the reign of queen Mary. 

It happened that a book came over into the hands of the 
English exiles, written against the marriage of ministers, by one 
Miles Hoggard, a silly hosier in London, but highly opi- 
nioned of his learning. It was debated amongst the English, 
whether this, book should be passed over with neglect, or an 
swered. And here the reader is requested to pardon this 
digression, as proper enough for my profession. Solomon hath 
two pro verbs, || the one immediately succeeding, yet seemingly 
crossing, the other : " Answer not a fool according to his folly, 
lest thou also be like unto him : " " Answer a fool according to 
his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit." 

Some! will have the first precept given ^magistrates (who 
are not to make their authority cheap by engaging against fools), 
and the latter to belong to all Christians. Others distinguish, 
that an answer according to his folly may be twofold ; by way 
of complying with it, which may not, and confuting it, which 

* Bale, de Script. Brit. cent. v. num. 44. f Ibid. cent. v. num. 76. 

J J, Waraeus, de Scriptoribus Hibernizie, p. 137. 

Bale, in his book termed " Scriptores nostri temporis," p. 111. 

|| Prov. xxvi. 4, 5. f Mr. Cartwright upon the place. 



WRITERS. 575 

ought to be done. Most make a difference between the railing 
fool and the reasoning fool ; the former to be ordered, as Hezekiah 
did Rabshakeh, "Answer him not a word/ * But, if he be a 
reasoning fool, who will offer to argue conceited of himself, take 
him off his speed with a short and seasonable return. 

Such a fool this Hoggard was adjudged, whom John Plough 
undertook to answer, and cut his comb so close, that the other 
appeared no more. He died in the beginning of the reign of 
queen Elizabeth. 

WILLIAM BRIGHTMAN was born in Nottingham (where some 
of his brethren were lately alive) ; bred fellow of Queen s Col 
lege, in Cambridge, and afterwards beneficed at Hannes in Bed 
fordshire. No lover of conformity, yet no hater of conformists, 
being charitable to such who in judgment dissented from him. 
His memory is most remarkable for his " Comment on the Re 
velation," by some Protestants approved, praised, admired ; by 
others slighted, contemned, condemned. 

Pro.- 1. His very name, Brightman, imports something of 
illumination and clearness therein. 2. He makes many hard 
places to be plain, and mysteries to be his histories, by his com 
ment. 3. He foretold many things forty years ago, which we 
see performed in our days. 

Con. I. Names are casual ; and even Lucian himself, as bad as 
he was, had as much of light and lustre in his name. 2. He 
makes many plain places hard, and histories to be mysteries by his 
mis-interpretation ; expounding the Seven Asian churches, then 
literally extant, tolfe Germany, France, England, &c. 3. Shoot 
ing so many arrows, no wonder some few if rather by hap 
than aim, hit the mark. 

Sure I am that time and Mr. Brightman will expound the 
hardest places in the Revelation ; but what credit is to be given 
to the latter alone I will not engage. 

Such who dislike Mr. Brightman s writing, could not but 
commend his angelical living, who had so much of heaven in his 
heart. Walking through the vineyard of this world, he plucked 
and eat a few grapes, but put up none in his vessel, using 
wealth as if he used it not. 

His clay-cottage did crack and fall down in the same minute, 
so sudden was his death : but he who died daily could on no 
day be said to die suddenly, being always prepared for his disso 
lution, which happened anno Domini 16 .. 

MEMORABLE PERSONS. 

ROBERT HOOD was (if not by birth) by his chiefest abode 
this country- man. Camden calls him preedonem mitissimumrf 
the gentlest thief that ever was : and know, reader, he is entered 

* 2 Kings viii. 36. 

f- His words are taken out of John Major. See his Britannia, in North Riding 
in Yorkshire F; 



576 WORTHIES OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 

into our catalogue, not for his thievery, but for his gentleness. 
Take the character of his (though not good) less bad behaviour 
from the pen of our poet.* 

" From wealthy abbots chests, and churls abundant store, 
What oftentimes he took, he shar d amongst the poor : 
No lordly bishop came in lusty Robin s way, 
To him before he went, but for his pass must pay : 
The widow in distress he graciously reliev d, 
And remedied the wrongs of many a virgin griev d." 

But who made him a judge ? or gave him a commission to 
take where it might best be spared, and give where it was most 
wanted ? His principal residence was in Sherwood Forest in 
this county, though he had another haunt (he is no fox that 
hath but one hole) near the sea in the North Riding in York 
shire, where Robin Hood s Bay still retaineth his name. Not 
that he was any pirate, but a land thief, who retreated to those 
unsuspected parts for his security. 

One may wonder how he escaped the hand of justice, dying 
in his bed for ought is found to the contrary ; but it was be 
cause he was rather a merry than a mischievous thief (compli 
menting passengers out of their purses) ; never murdering any 
but deer, and this popular robber feasted the vicinage with his 
venison. He played his pranks, in the reign of king Richard 
the First, about the year of our Lord 1100. 

THOMAS MAGNUS. He was an exposed child, left by his 
mother in the parish of Newark. What the poet f saith of the 
father of Cadmus (commanding his son to find his lost sister 
Europa, or else never to return) that he was, 

FacLo plus et scelerntus eodem, 
" Expressing in one act a mind, 
Which was both cruel and was kind," 

may be applied to the mother of this and all such foundlings. 
Now it happened that some Yorkshire clothiers coming in the 
dark (very early or late) did light on this child, and resolved to 
pay both for his nursing and education, the charge whereof 
would not be great, equally divided betwixt them, according to 
the proverb : 

Mullorum manibus grande levatur onus. 
" An heavy work is light to do, 
When many hands are put thereto." 

First then they took order he should be baptized in Newark, 
by the name of Thomas (probably the best person in their 
company) ; and because all of them had interest alike in him, 
for his sirname they assigned him Amang-us, which is amongst 
us, in the Northern pronunciation. 

They were very careful in his breeding. I confess Aristotle 
urgeth it as an argument against the breeding of children in 

* Drayton s Polyolbion, Songxxvi. p. 127. f Ovid, Metamorphoses. 



LORD MAYORS GENTRY. 



577 



common, that the care of all will effectually be the care of none, 
and so the children be neglected. Not so here, where this 
Thomas, though he had a commonwealth of foster-fathers, was 
very well brought up in learning, and became an excellent 
scholar and statesman, being employed in many foreign embas 
sies. Then took Jie on him the name of Dr. Magnus* (and was 
famous thereby both at home and beyond the seas) ; on which 
account he might claim kindred with Pompeius Magnus, Caro- 
lus Magnus, and Albertus Magnus, and whom not, who was 
great for arts, arms, or otherwise ? It soundeth much in his 
commendation, that he forgot not his gratitude to the town of 
his nativity, w r here he erected a fair school, with other benefac 
tions. He flourished (as I take it) under king Henry the Eighth. 

LORD MAYORS. 

I cannot, on my best inquiry, recover any native of this 
county who ever attained to this place of magistracy ; but am 
informed, that now the feet of one do tread near unto the thres 
hold of that door of honour ; and doubt not but, when he hath 
first entered and opened the way, there will be others soon found 
to follow him. 

THE NAMES OF THE GENTRY OF THIS COUNTY, 

RETURNED BY THE COMMISSIONERS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR OF KING HENRY 



THE SIXTH. 



John archbishop of York, and Humfrey earl of Stafford; Rich 
ard Stanhope, one of the knights for the shire; Commis 
sioners to take the oaths. 



Thomas Cheworth, chev. 
Johan. Zouche, chev. 
Will. Plumton, chev. 
Hug. Welughby, chev. 
Roberti Strelley, chev. 
Hen. Perponnt, chev. 
Robert Markam, chev. 
Gerv. Clyfton, chev. 
Will. Meryng, chev. 
Hug. Annesley, chev. 
Joh. Cokfeld, armig. 
Radulphi MakerelL 
Thome Nevyll. 
Roberti Brewce. 
Thome Stanton. 
Rad. Leek. 
Richardi Sutton. 
Thome Stanhope. 



Jacobi Stanhope. 
Thome Curson. 
Willielmi Byrton. 
Henrici Perponnt. 
Hugonis Hercy. 
Johannis Wastnes. 
Johannis Gaitford. 
Gorgii Clay. 
Johannis Husse. 
Johannis Hiklinge. 
Joh. Barbour de Leek. 
Thome Stannton de Sutton. 
Roberti Doyle. 
Rogeri Perponnt. 
Thome Hercy. 
Richardi Bevercotes. 
Roberti Moresby. 
Roberti Morewode, 



VOL. II. 



* Camden s Remains, p. 146, 
2 P 



578 



WORTHIES OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 



Johannis Clifton. 

Robert! Dunham. 

Johannis Serlby. 

Willielmi Wilbram. 

Thome Geneley. 

Thome Schefeld. 

Thome Anne. 

Johannis Rolley. 

Johannis atte Vikars. 

Willielmi Boson. 

Edm. Nornamuyle. 

Richardi Gatford. 

Johannis Becard. 

Willielmi Remston. 

Richardi Strelly. 

Thome Meryng. 

Willielmi Lassels. 

Johannis Powerr. 

Willielmi Powerr. 

Joh. Leek de Halom. 

Thome Okere. 

Philippi Barley. 

Thome Warberton. 

Johannis Alferton. 

Willi. Alferton, fil. ejus. 

Richardi Ranchestere de Wirs- 

sope. 

Johannis White de Colyngam. 
Johannis Glouseter de Car- 

coston. 

Richardi Walfeld de Newerk. 
Roberti Kelom de Newerk. 
Willielmi Skrymshire de 

Muskham. 

Roberti Garnon de Musk- 
ham. 

Johannis Kelom de Kelom. 
Rob. Darley de Thorp. 
Thome Columboll de Thorp. 
Riginaldi Shawe de Estwayte. 
Gervasii Bampton de Beston. 
Johannis Mathewe de Ster- 

roppe. 

Willielmi Crecy de Markham. 
Petri Creci de Markham. 
Roberti Forsett de Grynley. 
Will. Lord de Retford. 



Roberti Wytham de Orston. 
Radulfi Stuffin de Mansfeld 

Wodhous. 
Johannis Brannspath de Rag- 

nell. 
Johannis Brannspath, fil. ejus, 

de Ragnell. 

Tho. Brannspath de Ragnell. 
Rad. Barre de Ragnell. 
Johannis Crostes de Ragnell. 
Johannis Melton de Nor- 

manton. 

Willielmi Clerk de Gedlynge. 
Radulphi Wilbram de West- 

merkham. 

Galfridi Botelere de Welhagh. 
Rob. Norton de Kirton. 
Johannis Milnere de Allerton. 
Will. Haley de Sutton. 
Johan. Morehagh de Mansfeld. 
Joh. Arnall de Arnall. 
Johan. Spondon de Newerk, 
Johan. Dennett de Newerk. 
Hugonis Garnon de Muskham. 
Johan. Crumwell de Charleton. 
Rob. Crumwell, fil. ejus de 

eadem. 
Willielmi Daynell de Egman- 

ton, 

Edm. Berkyn de Allerton. 
Henrici Payser de Clypston. 
Simonis Caldewell de Laxton. 
Roberti Bliton de Cannton. 
Rob. Waryn de Wanton. 
Willielmi Drapourde Welhagh. 
Johannis Carleton de Blithe. 
Tho. Bagley de Blithe. 
Walt. Carleton de Carleton. 
Will. Hogekyngson de Mis- 

terton. 

Joh. Darnall de Misterton. 
Williel.Lyndrike de Stockwith. 
Willielmi Browet de Wal- 

kryngham. 

Richardi Caxton de Tuxford. 
Johan. Parlethorpe de Laxton. 
Tho. Grengorge de Allerton. 



WORTHIES OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 579 

SHERIFFS. 

This county had the same sheriffs with Derbyshire until the 
tenth year of queen Elizabeth, wherein they were divided, 
and since which time these were the particular sheriffs of this 
shire. 

ELIZ, REG. 

Anno Name and Arms. Place. 

10 Tho. Cowper, arm. 

Az. a tortoise erected O. 

11 Joh. Biron, arm. 

12 Joh. Nevil, arm. . . . Grove. 

G. a saltire Erm. 

13 Rob. Markham, arm. 

Az. in a chief O. a lion issuant G. and border Arg. 

14 Gerv. Clifton, mil. . . Clifton. 

S. seme de cinquefoils, a lion rampant Arg. 

15 Will. Hollis, mil. . . Houghton. 

Erm. two piles S. 

16 Th. Stanhope, mil. . . Shelf ord. 

Quarterly Erm. and G. 

17 Hen. Perpoynt, arm. . Holme. 

Arg. a lion rampant S. in an orb of cinquefoils G. 

18 Geo. Chaworth, arm. Wiverton. 

Az. two chevrons O. 

19 Tho. Markham, arm. . ut prius. 

20 Joh. Biron, arm. 

21 Fra. Willoughby, mil. 

O. on two bars G. three water-bougets Arg. 

22 Geo. Nevil, arm. . . . ut prius. 

23 Will Sutton, arm. . . Arundel. 

Arg. a quarter S. a crescent G. 

24 Fran. Molineux, arm. . Teversham. 

Az. a cross moline quarter pierced O. 

25 Rob. Markharn, arm. . ut prius. 

26 Brian Lasles, arm. 

Arg. three chaplets G. 

27 Joh. Sydenham, arm. . SOMERSETSHIRE. 

S. three rams Arg. 

28 Geo. Chaworth, mil. . ut prius. 

29 Tho. Stanhope, mil. . ut prius. 

30 Fra. Willoughby, mil. . ut prius. 

31 Joh. Biron, mil. 

32 Th. Thornhough, arm, 

33 Joh. Hollis, arm. . . ut prius. 

34 John Basset, arm. 

O. three piles G. a canton Erm. 

35 Fra. Willoughby, arm. . ut prius. 

36 Will. Sutton, arm. . . ut prius. 



580 WORTHIES OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 

Aiino Na.ne. Place. 

37 Rich. Whalley, arm. 

38 Job. Biron, mil. 

39 Job. Thorold, ar. 

S. three goats salient Gules. 

40 Hen. Chaworth, arm. . ut prius. 

41 Brian Lassels, arm. . . ut prius. 

42 Edw. North, arm. 

Az. a lion passant O. betwixt three flowers-de-luce Arg. 

43 Hen. Perpoint, arm. . ut prius. 

44 Rog. Ascough, mil. 

S. a fess O, between three asses passant Arg. 

JACOB. 

1 Will. Reyner, mil. 

2 Gab. Armstrong, arm. 

G. three right hands couped and armed barways proper. 

3 Will. Sutton, mil. . . ut prius. 

4 Will. Covvper, arm. . . ut prius. 

5 Jo. Thornhough, ar. 

6 Hen. Sacheverell, ar. 

Arg. on a saltire five water-bougets of the first. 

7 Job Molineux, arm. . . ut prius. 

8 Ger. Clifton, mil. . . ut prius. 

9 Job. Molineux, mil. . ut prius. 

10 Job Biron, mil. 

11 Geo. Perkins, mil. 

12 Ro. Williamson, arm. . East-Markham. 

O. a chevron G. betwixt three trefoils S. 

13 Rob. Perpoynt, arm. . ut prius. 

14 Geo. Lassels, mil.- . . tit prius. 

15 Jo. Thornhough, mil. 

16 Tho. Barton, arm. 

17 Will. Reason, arm. 

18 Tho. Hutchinson, mil. 

19 Job. White, mil. 

20 Job. Digby, arm. 

Az. a flower-de-luce Arg. 

21 Math. Palmes, arm. 

G. three flowers-de-luce Arg ; a chief Vary. 

22 Edw. Goldinge. 

G. a chevron O. betwixt three besan 
Galfr. Markbam, ar. . ut prius. 

CAROL. I. 

1 Tim. Pusey, arm. 

2 Fra. Williamson, arm. . ut prius. 

3 Tho, .Hewet, mil. 

S. a chevron counter-battillee betwixt three owls Arg. 



SHERIFFS. 581 

4 Jer. Teresy, arm. 

5 Ith. Perkins, arm, 

6 Rob. Sutton, arm. . . ut prius. 

7 Tho. White, arm. 

8 Tho. Bolles, arm. 

Az. three cups Arg. holding as many boars heads erected O. 

9 John Melish, arm. 

Az. two swans Arg. betwixt as many flanches Erin. 

10 Joh. Biron, mil. 

11 Har. Wasteneys, bar. . Hendon. 

S. a lion rampant Arg. collared G. 

12 Geo. Lassels, mil. . . ut prius. 

13 Fra. Thornhaugh, mil. 

14 Joh. Chaworth, arm. . ut prius. 

15 Tho. Williamson, arm. . ut prius. 

16 Gilb. et Edw. Nevil, arm. ut prius. 

QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

15. WILLIAM HOLLIS, Mil. This^was that steady and con 
stant house-keeper, who, for his hospitality and other eminent 
virtues, was commonly called " The good Sir William ;" a most 
honourable title, seeing of God s two grand epithets, Optimus, 
Maximus, the former is embraced by too few, the latter affected 
by too many. This Sir William was son to Sir William Hollis, 
Lord Mayor of the city of London, father to John Hollis 
Lord Houghton of Houghton, created earl of Clare in the 22nd 
of king Charles the First ; and grand father to the right ho 
nourable John the present earl of Clare [1650]. 

KING JAMES. 

13. ROBERT PERPOINT, Armig. He was afterwards created 
Baron Perpoint and Viscount Newark ; and afterwards, in the 
fourth of king Charles the First, earl of Kingston-upon-Hull ; 
one descended of right ancient and noble extraction, whose an 
cestors, coming over with the Conqueror, first fixed at Hurst- 
Perpoint in Sussex, thence removed into this county. I find 
this remarkable passage recorded of Henry de Perpoint, who 
flourished in those parts in the beginning of king Edward the 
First. 

"Memorandum, quod Henricus de Perponnt, die Lunee in 
crastino Octab. Sancti Michaelis, venit in Cancellaria apud Lin- 
colniam, et publice dixit quod sigillum suum amisit, et protes- 
tabatur quod si aliquod instrumentum cum sigillo illo post tem- 
pus illud inveniretur consignatum, illud nullius esse valoris vel 
moment!."* 

(" Memorandum, that Henry de Perponnt, on Monday the day 

* Claus. 8 Edwardi I. membrana tertia, in dorso, in Turr. London. 



582 WORTHIES OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE. 

after the Octaves of St. Michael, came into the chancery at Lin 
coln, and said publicly that he had lost his seal ; and protested, 
that, if any instrument were found sealed with that seal after 
that time, the same should be of no value or effect.") 

He appeareth a person of prime quality, that great prejudice 
might arise by the false use of his true seal, if found by a dis 
honest person, so that so solemn a protest was conceived neces 
sary for the prevention thereof. 

Robert Perpoint, a descendant from this Henry, was, by 
king Edward the Third, summoned as a baron to Parliament,* 
but died (as I am informed) before he sate therein, which hin 
dered the honour of peerage from descending to his posterity. 

But this Robert Perpoint was Robert the younger, in distinc 
tion from his name-sake-ancestor, who lived in great dignity 
under king Edward the Third, as by the following record will 
appear : 

" Rex Priori S. Johannis Jerusalem in Anglia, salutem. Cum 
dilectus et fidelis noster Robertus de Petroponte, qui fidei nos- 
trae et Edwardi primogeniti nostri hactenus constanter adheesit, 
in conflictu habito apud Lewes, captus esset ab inimicis nostris, 
et detentus in prisona Hugonis le Despenser, donee per septin- 
gentas marcas finem fecisset cum eodem pro redemptione sua ; 
unde Walerandus de Munceaus se prsefato Hugoni pro prsedicto 
Roberto obligavit per quandam chartam de feoffamento, et 
scripta obligatoria inter ipsos confecta, quae vobis liberata fue- 
rant custodienda, ut dicitur : Nos, ipsorum Roberti et Wale- 
randi indempnitati prospicere, et eidem Roberto gratiam facere 
volentes specialem, vobis mandamus, firmiter injungentes, quod 
cartas et scripta preedicta eidem Roberto et Walerando, vel 
eorum alteri, sine morae dispendio deliberari faciatis; et nos 
inde versus vos servabimus indempnes. In cujus, &c. Teste 
Rege, apud Westmonasterium, 15 die Octobris."t 

(" The king to the prior of St. John of Jerusalem in Eng 
land, greeting. Whereas our beloved and faithful Robert Per 
point, who hitherto hath constantly adhered to our trust, and 
of our first-born Edward, was taken by our enemies in a skir 
mish at Lewes, and kept in the prison of Hugh le Despenser, 
until by seven hundred marks he had made an end with him 
for his ransoming ; whereupon Walerand of Munceaus bound 
himself to the forenamed Hugh for the foresaid Robert, by a 
certain charter of feoffment, and obligatory writings made be 
twixt them, which, as is said, were delivered to you to be kept : 
We, willing to provide for the safety of the said Robert and 
Walerand, and to do a special favour to the same Robert, do 
command you, firmly enjoining, that ye cause the foresaid char- 

* Camden s Britannia, in Nottinghamshire, 
t Claus. 49 Hen. III. in dorso inemb. 6. 



WORTHIES SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 583 

ters and writings, without any delay, to be delivered to the 
same Robert and Walerand, or to one of them ; and we shall 
thenceforth save you harmless. Witness the king, at West 
minster, the 15th day of October.") 

Whoso seriously considereth how much the mark, and how 
little the silver, of our land was in that age, will conclude seven 
hundred marks a ransom more proportionable for a prince than 
private person. The best was, that was not paid in effect, 
which by command from the king was restored again. 

THE FAREWELL. 

There is in this county a small market town called Blythe, 
which my author* will have so named a jucunditate, from the 
mirth and good fellowship of the inhabitants therein. If so, I 
desire that both the name and the thing may be extended all 
over the shire, as being confident that an ounce of mirth, with 
the same degree of grace, will serve God more, and more ac 
ceptably, than a pound of sorrow. 



WORTHIES OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE WHO HAVE FLOURISHED 
SINCE THE TIME OF FULLER. 

Samuel AYSCOUGH, divine, antiquary, index and catalogue com 
piler ; born at Nottingham 1745 ; died 1804. 
John BLAY, founder of charity school ; born at East Leake ; 

died 1731. 

John BLOW, musician, excelled in church music, born at North 
Collingham 1648; died 1708. 

William BRIGHTMAN, commentator on the Apocalypse ; born 
at Nottingham ; died 1607- 

Major John CARTWRIGHT, political reformer, and author ; born 
at Marnham 1740; died 1824. 

John Gilbert COOPER, magistrate, biographer of Socrates, es 
sayist, and poet; born 1723; died 1769. 

Erasmus DARWIN, physician and poet; born at Elston 1731; 
died 1802. 

Robert DODSLEY, bookseller, poet, and dramatist; born at 
Anston near Mansfield 1703 ; died 1764. 

Caleb FLEMING, Socinian minister, and author; born at Not 
tingham 1698; died 1779. 

John, celebrated Marquis of GRANBY, warrior ; born 1720-21 ; 
died 1770. 

Richard fourth Viscount and first Earl HOWE, naval com- 

. mander; born 1726; died 1799. 

* John Norden, in his Description of Hertfordshire, voce Senington. 



584 WORTHIES OP NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, 

Dr. HOWELL, divine, chancellor of Lincoln, author of a His 
tory of the World ; born at Beckingham; died 1683. 

Samuel JEBB, physician, learned editor; born at Nottingham ; 
died 1772. 

Andrew KIPPIS, dissenting divine, biographer ; born at Not 
tingham 1725; died 1795. 

Robert MILLHOUSE, self-educated poet ; born at Nottingham 
1788; died 1839. 

Lady Mary Wortley MONTAGUE, classical translator, poetess, 
&c> born at Thoresby 1690; died 1762. 

Major Hayman ROOKE, traveller, historian of Sherwood Forest, 
antiquary; died 1806. 

Thomas SECKER, learned archbishop of Canterbury; born at 
Sibthorpe 1693 ; died 1768. 

Charles Manners SUTTON, archbishop of Canterbury ; died 1829. 

Dr, Robert THOROTON, physician, historian of this county; 
born at Screveton, 17th century. 

Gilbert WAKEFIELD, classical scholar and critic ; born at Not 
tingham 1756; died 1801. 

William WARBURTON, Bishop of Gloucester, author of "Di 
vine Legation," born at Newark 1698 ; died 1779. 

Sir John Borlase WARREN, admiral and author ; born at Sta- 
pjeford 1754 ; died 1822. 

Henry KIRKE WHITE, poet, amiable and pious ; born at Not 
tingham 1785 ; died 1806. 

Robert WHITE, astronomer; born at Bingham 1722; died 
1773. 

Thomas WHITE, bishop of Peterborough in 1685, deprived for 
refusing the oaths to William and Mary in 1690; died 1698. 

Barnard WILSON, divine and author; born at Newark 1689. 

Samuel WRIGHT, divine, author of "Happy hour, all hours 
excelling ;" born at Retford 1683. 



*#* in 1797, Mr. J. Throsby brought out a republication, with considerable ad 
ditions, of Thoroton s History of Nottinghamshire ; and in 1813, the twelfth vo 
lume of the Beauties of England and Wales, containing historical and descriptive 
notices of the county, added materially to the elucidation of its topography. Of 
local histories there have been published, Dr. Deering s Historical Account of Not 
tingham (1751) ; Harrod s History of Mansfield (1801) ; and Dickinson s Histories 
of Newark, and of Southwell (1819). ED. 



END OF VOL. II. 



Nuttall and Hodgson, Printers, Gough Square, London, 






* 



..